Something Blue
by Amelyani
Summary: Something out of this world has Detective Kate Becket and Richard Castle stumped as they solve a strange series of murders while planning their wedding. And when things can't get any more bizarre, they meet a odd man in a pinstripe suit with unkempt hair, babbling on about bio-psychic residue and alien technology. Who is this Doctor and will Kate finally believe in the impossible?
1. Something Blue

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or Castle. I wrote this fic purely out of my own personal enjoyment. And something creative to do. I get bored easily.**

**This is my first crossover I have ever done. I was never one for crossovers until I read a few Doctor Who ones. That show is perfect for it. I was thinking on writing a DW/Dresden one but I haven't read all of the books and until I finish them, I will wait on that and work on this one. I hope you enjoy it.**

Chapter 1 - Something Blue

She stood there in the shop on top of the small pedestal as she stared into her reflection, her breath taken away. Rich chocolate-brown hair cascaded down her shoulders in loose and large curls, the tips brushing just the top of the crystal white, sleeveless dress. Stones trimmed the top and around her waist, down to a 'v' an inch or two below her naval. The silhouette of the dress clung around her curved hips and down, giving her just enough room to walk. She held her hands together in front of her waist, holding an imaginary bouquet. She could see that bright smile from over her glowing face. It felt not to long ago when she was a little girl dreaming of one day walking down the aisle to her prince charming. And here she was in the perfect dress. It made her feel like such a princess. A goddess.

"You look beautiful."

Kate peeled her eyes away from her reflection to the redhead who stood beside her and grinned. "I feel like a princess." The bride-to-be gazed back her reflection. Vanity was never a trait of Kate's, continually staring at herself in the mirror. She just couldn't help it. She feel so confidant in this dress. "I think this is the one, Alexis. I know it is."

"Of course it is, girlfriend! You are gonna knock Castle speechless in that dress." Lanie, Kate's Maid of Honor, stood back as she admired her best friend in that perfect dress. The coroner was so proud of that woman standing there on that pedestal. She remembered like it was yesterday when she egged that brunette to give in to Castle's wiles.

"Absolutely stunning!" Martha beams at her future daughter-in-law. "Uh bup bup bup!" The older redhead patted away Kate's hand as she reached out for the bill in Martha's hand, curious about how much of the budget this perfect dress would actually use. "What did I say about not worrying about the cost, hm?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Martha, I'd rather not have to investigate your murder if Rick ever heard you say that." As much as she loved the dress, Kate always took issue with spending other people's money. She wasn't even sure about coming to this particular shop. It was completely out of her price range, despite the fact that it was her own fiancé who recommended the designer to her.

"Kate, don't worry." Alexis reached up her fair hand to rest it on Kate's wrist. "Dad wants you to have your fairytale wedding. Which includes your fairytale dress."

"But-"

"No buts!" Lanie placed her hands on her hips. "Imagine the look on Castle's face when you walk down the aisle in that thing." Her full lips curl into a smirk.

"I apologize for the wait." A tall blonde woman walked back from the front of the store. Carol Jennings was her name. She wore her hair up in a sleek doughnut bun down and don a perfectly ironed two piece suit, but her young face was soft and angelic. "Oh! Look at you!" She walked up to Kate in a pair of seemingly uncomfortable pointed stilettos, clasping her hands together. Her well manicured fingers intertwined with one another. "What did I tell you. Jeffery has an eye for bringing out your inner goddess."

"I," Kate hesitated. She really wanted the dress. It was perfect, but she was also fine with a store-bought dress. Then again, she couldn't say no because everyone worked so hard on it and Rick insisted a designer dress. The female detective caught the slight worry in Carol's eye from her hesitation.

Right then, before Kate could finish her reply, the bell from the front store rang as a new customer walked in. "I'm so sorry, Miss Beckett." Carol's brow furrowed, as if expecting a reprimand. "We've been so busy as of late and I've had a no-show and now I'm being completely unprofessional."

"No! No." Kate stepped down from the pedestal. "Go ahead. I need to change back into my clothes anyways. Take your time." She waved her hand at the young woman, who looked close to Alexis's age.

"Thank you. I will be right back, Miss Beckett."

"Please, just Kate." Detective Beckett smiled before calling back to Carol as the blonde headed back to the front. "And I'll take the dress." Kate turned back into the dressing room, leaving the three women who accompanied her cheering. As Kate undressed, with the help of Lanie to unzip the back, she could hear a conversation coming from the front of the shop that piqued her interest some, only because it was a bit odd.

"Hello, sir. May I help you?" Kate could hear Carol's soft voice over a faint whirring sound that suddenly stopped.

"Oh Hello!" replied what sounded like a British man. His tone was rather enthusiastic and voice slightly rough, squeaking just a bit at the 'hello' part. "Agent John Smith, Health and Safety. Just doing a quick scan," he continued, followed by that faint whirring sound again.

"Checking for what?"

"Oh, you know...stuff." The man's voice lowered and trailed off a bit, sounding as if what he was about to say had gotten away from him. "Well actually of particular kind of bio-psychic energy residue caused by prolonged exposure to-"

He was suddenly interrupted by a scream that came from outside the shop. The sound of the bell on the front door chimed again as Kate had assumed both the mysterious man and Carol had run out of the shop. The detective, who had already dressed herself back into her trousers and was buttoning the last button of her top, barged out of the dressing room and grabbed for her purse. She quickly reached out her gun and badge before barreling through the shop to the front, calling back to her friends, "Stay inside!"

Kate ran out through the door, the bell chiming again behind her as he looked both ways. "I thought I told you to stay inside."

"Someone might need medical attention." Lanie replied behind the detective. "There!" The coroner pointed to the right. About a block or two away was a circle of bystanders crowding around something or someone.

"Call for back up!" Kate called out to Lanie, who already had her cell out.

"Already a step ahead of you, girl."

The brunette sprinted down the sidewalk to the crowd. "NYPD. Make room," she stated, holding up her badge and people parted to allow her through. She stopped to look at three figures in the middle of the crowed, one hunched over another that was lying down, presumably unconscious or dead. Both were male. The third was a woman who looked down at the other two with a horrified expression. Kate assumed she was the one whom she heard scream and alerted her to the situation. The man laying down look ragged. His dirty salt and peppered hair was long and disheveled, match with a tangled beard and mustache on his long, gaunt face. Homeless, Kate noted. The other man, the man who squatted over the victim, wore a long, cardboard brown coat that draped over his tall and thin fame, the bottom half spilling down across the concrete beneath him. A pair of legs, covered by blue pinstriped trousers, peeked out from the opening of his coat, along with a pair of bright red, worn Converse. She couldn't see his face, his head turned away from her, but Kate could see his disheveled brown hair in a more styled and purposeful way, sticking up at the top, locks parted a bit from the use of gel and other hair products.

"NYPD! Put your hands behind your head!" Kate trained her gun at the man, who placed his hands up in the air on either side of his head, before they moved behind it, his knobby knuckles fitting perfectly as his fingers intertwined as they rested against his hair. "Stand up and turn around slowly." Kate watched the man closely as he obeyed, standing up very slowly. But before he started to turn around, something outside of the crowd distracted her. Her eyes only glanced at it for a moment before returning to the man, who was already pushing thorough the crowd on the other side and sprinting down the sidewalk. She grumbled. Why do they always have to run?

"Lanie!" Kate called as she ran across the other side of the circle of people, gesturing to the victim before she heard an "I got it" from her friend. The detective ran across the concrete after the suspect, his brown coat bellowing behind him. He was fast, she had to give him that. She wasn't even sure if she could catch up to him. She paused in her running to train her issued firearm at the suspect. "AGAIN! NYPD! Stop or I will shot!" She shouted at the suspect, causing the pedestrians to disperse, giving Detective Beckett and clearer shot. She lowered her gun a bit to aim non-lethally when suddenly the man turned sharply around the corner. Kate swore and sprinted after him again, turning around that same corner to find him a block ahead of her. She pushed her sprint harder, actually gaining up on him.

She was just a few feet from him before the suspect turned around another corner. Kate smiled. She knew her this city like the back of her hand and her perp just ran into a dead-end. She bolted around into the alleyway and stopped, eyes wide. She scanned the entire alley. She looked up the fire escape to her left, the ladder still up and out of reach. She looked to her right and saw a door, boards nailed shut over it. In the back of the alley, she saw a dumpster, in which she carefully and quietly walked up to before opening it wide and training her gun inside. It was empty, fresh after pick up.

"No," Detective Kate Beckett whispered to herself. The alley was empty. She was only a few feet behind him and her suspect just disappeared. She then heard siren in the distance as back up was arriving to the scene of the crime. The brunette backed away and took one last look around the empty alley before turning around and walking back to the main streets. Something gnawed at her as she paused to look back in the alley again, hesitating. She knew she was missing something. Something very important that she didn't want to see. Kate frowned before clicked the safety back on her issued firearm and walked back to the scene of the crime, completely oblivious to the strange blue box that stood in the alleyway.


	2. Missing Words

**Here is Chapter two. Thanks for the reviews. I had forgotten to mention where in the Doctor's timeline this was. You can obviously tell for Castle, this takes place way in the future. For the Doctor though, this is in between ****_The Waters of Mars_**** and ****_The End of Time_****.**

**Sorry for being a bit shorter, I tried to make it as long as I could but I didn't want to get to describe the nature of the crimes yet until chapter three.**

**Anyhoo, enjoy.**

Chapter 2 - Missing Words

Castle sat at his booth, staring at the blank document on his laptop. The change of scenery didn't seem to help him focus anymore than holding himself in his office like he always did when he worked on his current novel. Inspiration. He needed it more than ever. He needed something. Anything to stop the endless nothing that came as he tried to find the right phrases that expressed the wordless thoughts in his very being. Those thoughts that came every time he looked into those dark eyes or held those long dark waves of hair in his fist.

He glanced his eyes to the top corner of the screen. Eleven eighteen in the morning. Kate had been at her appointment with Jeffrey Hayes's assistant since about the beginning of the hour. Rick smirked at the thought of seeing his beloved detective walking down the aisle in a dress that would only enhance the physical features that he coveted so much of her. His mind's eyes wandered over the image of her body that he kept there and leaned back from his seat.

He quickly shut his laptop closed and looked around, as if to make sure no one saw the dirty little image he held in his mind. It was barely past opening for the Old Haunt, letting a couple of the morning regulars in to nurse off last night hangovers or escape from the summer heat. Castle sighed and wiped his hand over his face. Damn it. He was getting distracted again. Of course not one person could blame him. After all he was about to marry the hottest, most beautiful and beyond spectacular woman he has ever had the pleasure to meet. Why shouldn't he fantasize how he should start taking of that white dress, a dress he knew would be strictly designed for her body.

"A coffee refill, Mr. Castle?"

Castle jumped a bit as a soft voice brought him back to reality. He looked up and saw Abbey, a sweet college girl who wore her platinum blonde curly hair into twin braids, smiled down at her boss, holding the coffee post in one hand and her other on her hip. She was pale young thing with the strangest shade of blue eyes that Castle has ever seen.

"Oh thanks, Abbey. And call me Rick." Castle smiled up at the new girl as she poured more of that delicious, sweet dark nectar in his mug. He watched her for a moment, scratching his ear before speaking again. "Say, Abbey? You got a boyfriend?"

"What? You asking me out, Rick?" She leans against the table. "I thought you were getting married."

"Wh-wait. No!" The man flushed and stuttered. "I was just wondering because, well I, uh," He points to his laptop and looks back and forth between it and Abbey.

"Relax." She moves to sit in the booth across from Castle. "I'm only teasing you. God, You are old enough to be my dad." She laughs and smiles at the relief in her boss's face. "And no. No boyfriend. But I do have a wonderful Laura."

Rick's eyes widened as his lips circled into an 'o'. "Right," he replied before clearing his throat. He then reached down to take a drink of his delicious coffee. "I was just asking because-"

"You need help writing your vows?" The left corner of her lips perked up into an amused smirk as Castle's face scrunched a bit and nearly choked on the coffee.

"How did you-?"

"Psychic." She grinned at the man's face and let him be amazed before she continued. "No not really. It's obvious. You are getting married and a writer like yourself would rather have his own vows. You just asked me if I had a boyfriend without intending to asking me out on a date, thus the only conclusion is that you are writing your vows. Or at the very least trying to write them."

"Oh you are good." Castle sat there looking quite impressed, nodding his head a bit in silent for a few beats. He took another drink.

"Just start writing about how you felt when you first met her and then go from there? Never hurts." She starts to scoot out of the booth seat to stand. "You'll find the right words, Rick. I know you will." And with that she smirked again before walking away from the table and back tot he bar, leaving the novelist to sit there and ponder on her words.

Castle sat there for a few minutes, his mind wandering to that moment he first laid eyes on the stunning Kate Beckett. It was at his release party for Storm Fall, the ending novel of Derrick Storm. He remembered how bored he was of the monotonous and seemingly endless questions he would get from his fans. Don't get him wrong, Richard Castle loved his fans. He'd be out of a job if it were not for them, but at that moment he had dreamed for something new. Something that would through him for a loop. Something that would keep him guessing for years. A new mystery in his life.

His iPhone go off, breaking him from his reverie. Rick pulled it from the front pocket of his laptop bag. He looked down at the screen to see that lovely face of the woman he was about to marry, looking back at him in the image, and the name Kate displayed above the image. Speaking of a new mystery. He moved his thumb to swipe the bar on the screen and answer her call. "So how easy is the dress to take off?" Rick smirked as he could sense Kate's slight smile, waiting to hear her laugh.

"Castle, there has been another murder. Same MO." Her tone was a cross of amusement, from his earlier comment, and slight agitation as she relayed the crime scene's location. "I'm walking back there as we speak." She was silent for a moment. Castle could tell that something was weighing heavily on her mind.

"What is it, Kate?" Some times that woman on the other side of the line needed a gentle push when it came to the matters of the heart. Over the years she had gotten better about telling Castle her secrets, but that was the fun part. He still got to learn more about her. She was always an enigma, even after all these years.

"I almost had him. But he slipped away." Her voice was now full of agitation and disappointment. Kate was an exceptional detective, but she always tended to get frustrated and mentally kick herself when she loses a suspect or a person-of-interest.

"Wait, had who?" He started to packed his laptop in his bag, the cell tucked under his ear and shoulder.

"Our mystery suspect. He was kneeling over the victim." Castle could hear her sigh in frustration as he was scooting out of the seat and standing up. "I chased down into a dead-end. I wasn't far from him but when I turned the corner," she paused a moment. Something was eating at her and Rick could sense it in her fiance's voice. "Castle he vanished. Completely disappeared."

"Are you sure you didn't miss any exits. A door?"

"Castle..."

"Anything?" Normally Rick would be all over this with his wild theories, but over the years he has learned with to throw those ideas out and when not to. This exact moment was not one of them.

"Castle, I checked the entire alley. Nothing." He could hear the exasperation in her voice before she spoke away from the phone to someone else. This was probably an officer, meaning she must have just arrived at the scene.

"We'll get him, Kate." Castle shouldered his back, bring his hand back to cradle the phone to his ear. "I'm on my way there."

"See you here then." And with that, Kate had hung up. Castle looked down at the phone for a second with a frown. He knew this case was getting under her skin and they only had a week to solve this case before their wedding and then honeymoon. If they didn't, Rick and Kate would have to postpone the honeymoon until they did and they were no were near solving this mystery. And now there was a third victim.

"Hey Abbey?" Rick called out and then saw the blonde poke her head out of the kitchen. "Can you get me too coffees to go? Usual for the misses and me."

"Righteo!" She beamed and got to work, handing him them both as he tucked this cellular back into the bag. "Remember, the words will find you."

Castled grinned right back. "They always do. See you later." And with that, Rick down the pub and to front exit, both hands occupied as he pushed the door open. He stopped taking notice of the many pictures that hung on the walls of the The Old Haunt after having looked at everyone one of them many times by now since he bought the place a few years back. One frame in particular held a picture of Beau James with two unfamiliar people. On his left, the right side of the picture, was a younger blonde. She was exceptionally beautiful with her wavy hair and full lips curled into a smile. On the other side of the mayor, was a man grinning like a madman. His face was angular and carried sharp features. His hair stuck up much like a frightened cat's fur and his wide dark eyes were full of wonder. He wore a pinstriped suit that seemed to fit the era, but there was a timeless look about him.


	3. Strange Deaths

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or Castle. I wrote this fic purely out of my own personal enjoyment. And something creative to do. I get bored easily.**

**Thank you for the reviews. It looks like the Doctor might be entering in the story for good a bit early, but that is okay. I have been working on trying to make the murders believable, but still keep with the science fiction aspect of Doctor Who. I also wanted to start in the middle of the investigation, so there might be references and flashbacks that had occurred before the start of this story.**

**Forgive me for another short chapter. I assure you they will get longer.**

**Enjoy.**

Chapter 3 - Strange Deaths

The scene was a mess. Yellow police tape marked off the crime scene from the bystanders and the vultures called reporters, crammed shoulder to shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the police procedure. Rain began to drizzle lightly, bringing a slight relief to the heat, but also threatening her crime scene. Beckett took a moment to take in the sight of officers guarding the site as her mind relayed the previous two murders in her head.

_Three days ago_

"What do we have, Lanie?" Kate stood over the cold naked body of the victim, his skin pale under the harsh florescent lights of the morgue. He was a handsome man, his strong jaw chiseled like marble. He reminded her a bit like Gaston from the Beauty and the Beast movie, save for the slightly crooked nose that looked as if it broke a couple of times in his childhood. His sandy brown hair brushed back after rinse for autopsy preparation.

"Kelsey Harvard. A board member for St. Mary's Memorial Hospital." Lanie replied, her gloved hand lain on the edge of the table, standing at man's waist.

"How did he die?"

"Look like an unexplained seizure. He was epileptic."

"Lanie, I'm a homicide detective."Kate looked up from the victim to her friend. "If this isn't a murder, why did you call me down here?"

"Seizures among those with epilepsy are not uncommon. However, sudden deaths caused by seizure from epilepsy are very rare. Plus I found a high level of DSIP, delta sleep-inducing peptide. It's common drug to help control epilepsy, but way above the typical dosage. I also found an unknown chemical in his system." The coroner walks up to the victim's head. "Now I remembered coming across another man who died of an unexplained seizure from epilepsy two days ago and checked into his tox screen. I found the same level of DISP and unidentified substance."

"Are you saying these two were poisoned? And that they're connected?"

"It's not the only thing I found that both deceased had in common." Lanie tilts the dead man's head to the side to show a wound on the neck at the base of his skull. "I found post-modem tearing of the skin. Like something was surgically removed."

Kate crossed her arms in thought. "Someone was getting rid of evidence? An illegal trial?"

"I don't know, but in my professional opinion, I don't think these two poor souls died without outside help," replied Lanie.

_Back to Present Day_

"Is this our third victim, Lanie?" Kate asked as she pushed up the yellow tape and ducked down, making her way to the coroner. Her instincts told her this was her third vic, but instincts don't solve the case alone.

"Looks like it. No physical signs of assault. Just some scrapes and bruises from when he fell down on the concrete. He was burning up when I checked for vitals. And I don't mean your average fever. I'd have to run more tests, but I'd guess unexplained seizure like the first two." Lanie knelt and pulled up the man's sleeve to show a medical bracelet. "Epileptic."

"Just like our first two vics."

"But, take a look at this," Lanie turned the victim's head to the side to reveal something silver in the back of his neck. A smooth silver tag embedded into the base of the skull. I was one inch by two-inch across in size. The same shape and size as the wound on the previous two victims.

"Looks like our perp didn't have enough time to remove the evidence. What is it?" Kate bent down with Lanie. "Looks like some kind of high-tech GPS tag. Send it to our tech guys to take a look at it once removed, okay?"

"Gotcha." Lanie placed the man's head back straight before zipping closed the body bag and standing up along with Kate, who turned to find one of her best guys, Javier Esposito.

"Javie, what do you have for me?" She walked up to him as relayed what he discovered from their best witness.

"That woman right there," he pointed to the woman Kate saw earlier before she chased her mysterious suspect. "Her name is Ariel Lancaster. She runs the Aurora homeless shelter just a couple of blocks from here. Says our vic's name is Colby Briars. He would come and stay at the house every once in a while when the weather was bad. He even helped out. Cleaning and passing out food."

"Did she see what happened?"

"Yea. She said she was on her way to the shelter when she passed our vic. He seemed alright apart from suffering from the flu was her guess. She offered to take him to the shelter and call the doctor to get him some medicine when he just toppled over in pain. That was when she screamed for help. And here is the kicker. She recognized our suspect. Said he came running down claiming to be a doctor and then, and I quote, 'waved a strange metal wand that emitted a blue light at the end and gave of a strange whirring sound' at our vic before running off before you came."

"That's not all," Kevin Ryan, Kate's other 'best guy', had walked up to the both of them from the opposite direction, his note pad in hand. "I went to talk to Carol Jennings, the woman who was fitting you for your wedding dress." He spoke carefully as Beckett stared him down. "She recognized the sketch of our mystery suspect. She said that his name was Agent John Smith of," he glances down at his notepad, "Health and Safety." He looks back. "She said he was there waving some weird high-tech pen-shaped scanner in every direction, checking for some kind of physic residue? This guy sounds completely nuts, but she also said he was there until she heard someone scream and he dashed right through the door."

Kate's brow furrowed. "I heard him. He was in the shop? He had a British accent. A rough sounding voice." She was silent for a moment. Something just didn't seem to feel right. "Okay, Esposito, first I want you to have a sketch artist work with both our witnesses. I want to know what this wand/pen-scanner looks like. Then canvas the area, ask anyone within this block if they recognize our suspect. I want to get a good idea of where he was before the shop. Ryan, check with HHS with any abroad agents under their payroll or on loan. John Smith could be an alias, but don't rule that out."

"Got it!" Both Ryan and Esposito left the scene to complete the tasks they're ordered as Castle finally arrived, a medium coffee in each hand.

"Hey, so what happened? Alexis called my right after you and told me what had happened." He handed Kate her coffee.

Kate's eyes widened as she remember she left them in the shop. "We should head back, let them know everything is okay. No wait. I should, you can't see my dress. It's bad luck." She started back for the little shop, Castle following her.

"No it's bad luck for the groom to see his bride the night before the wedding. Which is a few days from today." He grins knowingly, his face giving away the images he was playing inside his head already.

"I'm not taking any chances." Kate just glares at him playfully.

"Relax, Alexis already told me to tell you that they already picked up the dress and have it at the loft for you to pick up. Also for me not to peek at it or she'll set- wait, that part was for me." He shudders a bit at the thought of the torture what would await him should he go against his daughter's expressed orders before grinning back at Kate. "Now tell me the gory details."

"What's so gory about trying on a wedding dress?"

"Not the dress, the murder." There was a twinkle in Castle's eyes. The kind he always gets when there is a strange murder. It seems to only intensify when one murder become multiple. Kate continues to wonder grimly on whether she would have come a crossed this man as serial killer if he never picked up writing. She quickly reminded herself that is was more about the thrill of the hunt for the truth that excited him. The man always loved solving a mystery.

"Let's head to the precinct. I'll bring you up to speed on the way there." And with that, Kate lead Castle to her car.


	4. Dr Evil and the Time Traveling Aliens

**Okay, sorry about the small delay. I had the first bit writing not too soon after finishing the last chapter, but was having some issues finishing it off. I wasn't sure how to start the hospital scene and what not, but I finally got it.**

**Yes, this is the moment you have all been waiting for. The Doctor enters stage left. ;P**

**I'm also needing some ideas for the interrogation scene. Random little things I can put in to through Kate off and add to the Doctor's constant babbling. If you have any, please send me a message or review.**

**And reviews are welcomed. In fact encouraged! Even criticism but please, be nice about at and if you don't like something or that I did something wrong, give me a solid reason. ;P**

**Thanks and enjoy!**

Chapter 4 - Dr. Evil and the Time Traveling Aliens

Castle sat in his usual spot next to Kate's desk, sipping away at the coffee he brought back from The Old Haunt. He leaned back a little as he watched Beckett put up the new-found clues on to the murder board. To any untrained eye the board might have looked like an intricate web of chaos, but Rick knew how his fiance's mind worked. How she put the pieces together. In fact it much like how he put together clues in his novels. He smirks a little at the memory of Kate commenting on how his brainstorming web looked much like her murder board, except his wasn't real.

As Kate pulled back to lean against her desk, Castle could see the new pieces added to the web much more clearly now. Two more sketches of their suspect hung next to their original, all three slightly different but joined holding a more accurate description of this mysterious man. His face was rather angular with high cheekbones. One brow arched higher than the other hung over his wild expressive eyes, giving the man a constant look of curiosity and wonder. Side burns trailed down from his unkempt hair. One of the sketches shown a sprinkle of freckles dotted over his cheekbones.

"He still looks familiar. I'm sure I've seen this guy before." Castle stated, breaking Kate's silent thoughts.

She looked down at him for a moment, a brow raised. "You keep saying that."

"I know but I can't seem remember. No wait!" Castle gets up and walks to the board. He points his finger to one other recent sketches, his finger tapping the paper as he turned to face Kate. "Now I remember!" He waited for a dramatic pause that took too long for Kate's liking. She glared at him with her arms crossed. "Barty Crouch Jr."

Kate was frozen in her spot as she stared back at her fiancé, completely dumbfounded. After a pause that didn't seem to wipe that stupid grin off his face, she finally spoke. "Barty Crouch Jr? From Harry Potter?"

"Yea! Doesn't he?" Castle grinned wider.

Kate hesitantly looked back at sketches. "And I suppose this," she pulled down the sketch of the strange device witnesses said they saw him carrying and holds it up for Castle to see. "This is just his magic wand?" The device was long and thin, much like a large pen. Described as silver with a head that extended, it was topped with a blue light the lit up and made a strange whirring sound when on. Kate suspects it was the same sound she heard in the dress shop.

Before Castle could answer, he spotted Ryan walked up to them, holding a printed document. "Lanie says that our third victim had epilepsy and his tox screen came out the same as the first two. Also I check with HHS and it looks like there is one John Smith working on loan from overseas. But he has no medical field background at all." He hands Kate the document after she returns the sketch of the silver 'pen' back on the murder board. "However there is no picture of him. The form they have on him does say he is from London."

"He sounded British, that is for sure." Kate attached the form next to the suspects sketches and then glared it. "But we don't know if this is our guy. John Smith is a common name. He could have gotten lucky." She frowns. "Who are you, really?" She murmurs to the sketches, her gut telling her that who ever this guy his, his name is not John Smith.

"Let's look at what we've got." Castle moved back to stand beside Kate, between her and Ryan. The other two could feel one of Castle's theories coming on. "We have three murders of seemingly unrelated victims, all except that they all were diagnosed with epilepsy. They didn't even have the same doctor, yet somehow all three had the same levels of a sleep-inducing drug and some completely unknown chemical. And we now have a strange device implanted at the base of our victims' skulls. This can only mean one thing..." Castle paused yet again for dramatic effect. "Dr. Evil is trying to take over the world by slowly taking over our minds."

"Dr. Evil?" Kate glared at him. "First he's Barty Crouch Jr. and now you are saying he is Dr. Evil. He looks nothing like him!" Exasperated, Kate had no time or patience for one of Castle's imaginative and completely idiot ideas. She had three murders to solve.

"No! Listen, our mystery man is not Dr. Evil. He's the misunderstood hero trying to stop Dr. Evil."

Kate's mind literally broke for a few minutes as she trying to wrap it around Castle completely insane theory. "Castle, we have three dead bodies and one strange device. For all we know our mystery guy could have removed the first two to hide any evidence implicating him."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Esposito walked up with what looked like a blow up of a fingerprint. "CSU just lifted this from the device we found. It's being run though, but I'm not even sure we would get a match." He handed Kate the photo. Strange was not a strong enough word to describe the fingerprint. At first it appeared normal. It was loop print much like any other, save for one detail. There were also perfect circles imprinted in a pattern, layered in such a way that reminded Kate of the gears inside of a clock.

"This was on the device?" Kate looked up from the photo to Javier, who nodded in reply. She grabs a clip magnet and hangs the photo next to the sketches, letting Castle stare at the image like a child in a candy shop. "What about it? Did our techs find anything?"

"Laura has been trying to take it apart, but she hadn't had much luck. She was able to connect to it and said that whatever it is, it's way too advanced and doesn't seem to using a binary system. Whatever that means."

"Of course you know what that means. Advance technology, way more advance than Earth technology and is written in a different code." Castle started, ignoring Kate's protests. "Aliens!"

"Or it could be time travelers." Ryan added to the insanity. Rick pointed a finger at Ryan with a smile, the mentor praising his pupil.

"Time traveling aliens." Esposito grinned at Kate, going along with this nonsense like a big brother teasing his little sister. Both Castle and Ryan bow with their hands steepled in front of them in a sign of mocked respect to Javier, who then returns the mock bow.

"GUYS!" Kate shouted. "Seriously. There is no such thing as a time traveling alien. There is a perfectly normal explanation for all of this." This was getting ridiculous. Was Detective Kathrine Beckett the only sensible one left in this group. Suddenly the phone at Kate's desk rings and she gets up to walk around to it.

The three men looked at each other. "Perhaps we went a little overboard," Ryan stated as he glanced back at the Kate as she picked up the phone, who growled out her name as she answered it. "You know, stress. From the upcoming wedding."

"Speaking of the wedding." Javier looked back at Rick, his face rather serious.

"Nono! Guys, seriously. I haven't made up my mind." Castle threw up his hands.

"Castle, it is just a few days off from the big day and you still have no Best Man." It was true. Rick had been avoiding picking his Best Man, Javier Esposito or Kevin Ryan. The decision would have been easy if he had a brother, but Castle grew up as an only child.

"Yea, Castle, come on. Tell us, we can handle it." Ryan insisted, his own face mimicking his partner's.

"We've got another one. Jeffery Simmons." Kate interrupted, saving the novelist from the ambush, as she hung up the phone and finished writing an address on a post-it note. "Ryan. Esposito." She hands them the note. "I'll meet you there later. Castle, with me."

Rick grabbed his coat and followed Kate out before anyone could reply, following her to the elevator. "Um, so where are we going?"

"St. Mary's." Kate pressed a finger to the down button of the elevator.

"The hospital? Why would we be going there?" Rick asked as the doors opened and they both stepped inside.

"Because this one," Kate leaned forward to press the ground floor button and the doors to the elevator closed, "is still alive."

* * *

It was your average day at St. Mary's. Busy as usual with the injured and sick. Detective Becket walked up to the main counter and showed her badge to the nurse at the station, Castle following behind her. He looked around, seeing all the people sitting and waiting to be called in, his mind automatically taking in the details. There was a young couple sitting next to each other holding hands, the woman looking well over eight months due and ready to pop. A couple of chairs down was a fidgety man, his knee bobbing up and down as he waited for his next fix. A few of rows down was man with his mother and son, who was, at this moment, curled up on dad's lap cradling his arm. Possibly broke it when playing outside and grandma's. It was an occupational hazard. Everyone had a story.

The nurse glared at Kate as if she were intruding on something important but gave a curt, "Can I help you?"

"I'm Detective Beckett, this is my partner Castle. I'm here about a Jeffery Simmons who was admitted here."

"Room 1051," the nurse replies while shifting some files around. "Coma Ward."

"Thank you and could you page his doctor as well? We will need to speak with him." Kate glances to Castle before finding her way to room 1051. She weaved around the staff and patients walking through he corridors before she halts in front of the door to the room. Beckett reached her hand out to the door knob and opened it and walked in, Castle following suit and closing the door behind them. That was when Kate froze as she saw the man before her, standing over Mr. Simmons. His back turned to her, but she recognized that ruffled hair and light brown coat. He even wore the same pair of red converse.

"You!" She shrieked.

The man turned around. He was definitely the man from the sketches and was holding a long slender device in his hand that resembled the the one in the sketch made earlier that day. He had the same angular jawline and freckles dotted across his cheeks. Everything was the same saved he wore a pair of thick black glasses, the rims squared and narrow. He stared at Kate with such confusion on his face. "Me? What about-?" He pauses as he sees the police badge on her belt. "Oh wait! There are perfectly good and complicated reasons as to why I'm here."

Kate quickly regained her bearings before she pulled out her handcuffs. "John Smith, if that is your name, you are under arrest for obstruction of justice and evading arrest. Turn around with your hands behind your head." She lifted her hand and twirled her finger around.

"Okay, fine. I will do that. But first I need to stop this man's mind becoming overloaded in about," he looked up to the ceiling and counted on his fingers, "thirty seconds? There is just a small window of opportunity before he burns." The man stared at her, speaking in a low and serious tone.

"What makes you think I'd believe you? For all I know, you are here to collect the implicating evidence around the back of his neck. No, you are coming with me." Kate walks up to the man, pulling her jacket back to reveal her holstered gun. Normally this act would scared a suspect into either giving up, or doing something foolish. This man however glanced down at her piece with an annoyed glare.

"You don't understand. He will die if I don't stop it." 'Smith's' eyes narrowed in urgency. "I promise you after that I will go with you and tell you everything you need to know, but I have to save him. Please!"

"Kate, I think he really believes it. I think you really should let him." Rick stepped forward to stop the detective, but before she could reply, all of the monitor alarms started going off. Jefferey Simmon's, the man lying in the hospital bed in a coma, was convulsing violently. 'Smith' went to quick work, pointing his device at the room door, which made a soft click and then quickly pocketed it before reaching down to the man.

"I'm warning you!" Kate had pulled out her gun and trained it on 'Smith', who turned back to her.

"Go ahead and shoot!" He yelled back at her. Pounding and shouting came from the other side of the door as doctors and nurses were trying to get it to open. "Don't let them in. Not yet," he ordered as Kate moved to let them in. Castle however, his writer instincts telling him that it was best to listen to the mad man, grabbed his fiance's arm to stop her.

"I really think we should listen to him." There was a strange tone in the writer's voice. Rick really believed it was the right course of action, and not in a geeky let's-see-what-happens kind of way. He was serious. This made Beckett pause. Her muscles relaxed some before both turned back to this mysterious 'Smith', who was now leaning over Mr. Simmons, his hands reaching for the comatose man's temples.

What happened next, Kate could not make any sense of it. As soon as she saw this man place his fingers on the sides of Jeffery Simmon's head, 'Smith' suddenly grew rigid as all his muscles seemed to tighten up. After a couple more seconds she could here him panting, like a man struggling to not scream or cry out of intense pain. Was he in pain? Was he taking on the stroke like some kind of sci-fi empath? Kate shook her head. She has been reading too many of Castle's comic books.

After what seems like an eternity, this scruffy man pulls back from the bed, nearly falling back, but he catches himself on on of the monitors. Simmons' vitals were all back to normal and his eyes seems to blink open as he woke from his coma. 'Smith' leans forward on the side railing of the bed and grins to the man.

"Good as new, Mr. Simmons." Still panting, he then reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls that strange device back out, pointing it at the door, which was appeared to be locked and as now unlocked with a click, letting the angry and confused staff in. "Oh sorry about that, I think the door was jammed. Nothing to worry about though." He pats the equipment around the bed. "Just a technical malfunction." He grins before walking up to Kate with his hand lifted up to her, wrist side by side. "Alright. Now you can arrest me." There was a wide cheek grin on his face. A grin that Kate felt she would have a hard time staying serious around in the future.


	5. The Mad Man

**Thank you for the reviews and replies. Things are going better now and feel less hectic as I found myself helping my mom with funeral arrangements. **

**I never stated before that the sneak peek I gave you was for a future chapter. I don't know when it will come to be, but once it does I will be taking it out when I post it.**

**It has also come to my attention that I am in need of a beta-writer. While I feel I'm doing better at catching my errors and such, another pair of eyes will do me good. If any of you would like to be my beta-writer, please message me.**

**I'm also going back and editing the previous chapters to fix a few things and possible add anything to keep some continuity as I continue to write this fic. I some idea of where I'm taking this, but I'm starting to get to a fork in the road on how I want to take it. So all in all I will tell you when I've revamped a previous chapter as it might hold new clues. Sorry about that.**

**All in all keep up with the reviews please. I get all giddy when I get one.**

_**Castle**_******quote  
****_Castle_****: Does he look like a killer to you?  
****_Beckett_****: Everybody looks like a killer to me, Castle. Job requirement  
****_Castle_****: Do I look like a killer to you?  
****_Beckett_****: Yes, you kill my patience. - ****_Famous Last Words_**

_**Doctor**_**_ Who_**** quote  
****_Rose_****: My mum's here.  
**_**The Doctor**_**: Oh, that's just what I need! Don't you dare make this place domestic!  
****_Mickey Smith_****: You ruined my life, Doctor. ****_[the Doctor turns and looks at him, irritated]_**** They thought she was dead, I was a murder suspect because of you!  
****_The Doctor_****: ****_[looks at Rose]_**** See what I mean? Domestic!  
****_Mickey_****: I bet you don't even remember my name!  
****_The Doctor_****: Ricky.  
****_Mickey_****: It's Mickey!  
****_The Doctor_****: No, it's Ricky.  
****_Mickey_****: I think I know my own name!  
**_**The Doctor**_**: You ****_think_**** you know your own name? How stupid are you? - ****_Aliens of London_**

Chapter 5 - The Mad Man

Kate stood over her desk, gathering up photos of the victims, of the metal device they found on the latest one, and one finally sent by HHS to place in a manilla folder. A few moments before, she had arrested their mysterious man at St. Mary's Hospital after he somehow not only prevented their fourth victim, confirmed by having the same drugs in his system as the first three victims, from dying of a stroke, but also miraculously awoke him from his coma. She used the chance to call Ryan and Esposito to the hospital to question Mr. Simmons as she had her suspect taken to the precinct.

Back to the thought of this 'John Smith', Kate frowned as her suspicions of him seemed to only confuse her even more. Something was very off about him. The man looked utterly harmless, but she knew in her line of work looks could be deceptive. However her instincts seems to scream opposite remarks about 'Mr. Smith'. One hand, the look in his eyes when he pleaded her to help the man were completely sincere. She had no doubt within the fiber of her being that this man's intention was just to save Mr. Simmons's life, plain and simple. However, innocent men don't run from police. The reason might not have been murder, but he still ran. And once more, there was something else about him. Something darker. It was nothing sinister, but she felt that this man was dangerous. And Detective Kate Beckett needed to find out exactly what was so dangerous about this man if he is not behind the murders.

"I see you caught our guy?" Kate looked up to see her boss Captain Gates standing beside her desk. The hard faced woman looked over to where the man was being held before returning her gaze back to the detective.

"Not sure." The detective answered. "A lot of things don't add up with him. He saved Jeffrey Simmon's life. Not just that but brought him out of his coma, with literally a touch of his fingers. Either this is some elaborate scheme to knock us off his trail or there is something else at work here."

"I'm more inclined to go with the thought of this being a scheme of his." Gates raised a brow pointedly at Kate, who half-agreed. In fact the photo sent by HHS was an image of the John Smith they had found and he looked nothing like the man in her interrogation room. Still, the detective's gut instinct told her he was not behind the murders, only because the captain didn't see the look on that man's face when he begged Kate to let him save a life.

Beckett nodded to her boss before picking up the file she put together and walked to the door in which the man was being held in. Castle stood next to it waiting for her with his arms crossed, leaning against the frame. He looked rather eager to talk with the strange man, and he straightened as Kate walked passed her partner and opened the door without a word. She let the novelist through first before following and closing the door behind her.

Looking down at the man sitting at the table, Kate could see that he practically made himself at home. His brown coat draped over the back of the chair, which was tipped back and the hind legs were expertly balanced. This allowed him room to prop his feet up on the table. His blue suit jacket was unbuttoned and his red tie hung loosely around his neck over his navy dress shirt. He was staring up at the ceiling, looking absolutely bored, before blinking and tilting his head down to gaze at Kate as Castle sat down in the chair furthest from the door. She glowered down at 'Mr. Smith's' crimson converse as he beamed a grin at her.

"Feet off the table." She ordered in her stern voice, making his grin falter and his dark brows furrow.

"Is this how you plan to get me to talk? Bore me to confession in this completely bland room for nearly twenty minutes and thirty-four and a half seconds?" He replied with a controlled annoyance. "I saved that man's life and you are just going to order me about?"

"I'm not going to repeat myself." She glared down at the pair of converse still perched up on her table.

His eyes widened."Am I being rude again?" 'Smith' leaned forward and tucked his feet back under the table, letting the front legs of the chair slam down on floor. The sound made the man wince a bit in apology. "Sorry." He gestures his hand out to her to continue and sit before leaning forward on his arms on the table, his fingers intertwined.

Kate sat down as she sent a glare at Castle, who was stifling a chuckle rather unsuccessfully, only making her suspect grin wide and her irritation grow. She kept her emotions under check, however. She sensed that her normal intimidating tactics would prove unsuccessful on this man, as well as her softer ones. However, she only needed to show him that she was in charge. In charge of the room and even her thoughts and emotions.

"I'm Detective Kate Beckett and this is my partner Richard Castle." Kate starts.

"Hello!" The man replied, his voice reaching falsetto in a rather cheery manner, while holding up one hand, waving his fingers back and forth. He got only a stare at Kate, but a smile from Rick with a short hand wave.

"Witnesses say you introduced yourself by the name of John Smith?"

"Well I do go by that name on occasion?" 'Smith' leaned back in his chair, buttoning his jacket back up and tucking his tie underneath as he continued. "But like so many other people, I go by other names as well. Much like you would go by Kate or Katie. Kat or Kathryn maybe? And much like you partner there would go by Rick, Rickey, Richard, or Dick!" He saw Castle shake his head at the last name. "No? It's a good name. It is a strong, solid name, though I could see why most Americans nowadays find it uncomfortable." His voice lowered a bit before rising again with enthusiasm. "I'm also fond of Ricky. I knew a Ricky once. Well a Mickey. Good lad. Stupid, but good!"

"You have any identification then?" Kate held her hand out for whatever means the man had of identifying himself, glaring at him. Goodness this man could ramble.

"Er, sure. Yea." He turned to reach into his coat pocket and pulled out a leather billfold. He then flipped over the top of it to reveal his means of identification, letting her take it from his hand. She peered at it to check its authenticity as Castle leaned over to look as well. His face scrunched a bit in confusion as his eyes moved back and forth between the billfold and the man across the table.

"Interpol?" Kate looks up at the man in mix of disbelief and surprise, swearing for a split second there was a hint of shock on the man's face. Something about it didn't add up. It looked authentic. But there was something off about it. Something she couldn't put her finger on it.

"That's right." He moved his hands behind his head and his feet back up on the table before quickly lowering them again under at the look on the detective's face. "Er, yes. I'm from Interpol."

"Um, Kate-" Castle started.

"What does Interpol want with my case?" She ignored Castle. "Are you suggesting a world-wide connection in these murders?"

"Kate-" Castle tried to interject, but again ignored.

"Well, world-wide is a bit small for the connection I'm thinking of but, yes. Grander scale than you realized." The man answered, scratching the back of his ear.

"What do you mean a world-wide connection is small?" Kate asked.

"It's blank!" Castle shouted out, finally gaining attention.

"What's blank?"

"That!" He points to the paper on the billfold.

Kate shot him a glare. She did not have time for his games and he should know better than to mess around like this during an interrogation. But she looked down at the billfold in her hand, remembering there was something off about it. But blank? She looked up at 'Smith' to see him beaming at Castle.

"That is brilliant! Utter amazement! To think I would meet yet another being clever and imaginative enough to see through my psychic paper!" The man stood up, making Kate reach for her holster before realizing he was only reaching out his hand to her partner. Castle took the man's hand, letting him shake it vigorously, grinning as widely as 'Smith'. "Why the only other being who was able to see through it was Shakespeare himself!"

"Hey, Beckett," Castle was still beaming and shaking the man's hand, "he just said I'm like Shakespeare!"

"What the hell is 'psychic paper'?" Kate, having already stood at the ready, snapped, causing the two men to release hands and stare at her, Castle still unable to completely contain his pride and 'Smith's' Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed nervously. "And who are you really?" She pulls out a photo of a man from her file and tossed it in front of 'Smith' across the table. "Because that is the real John Smith you had claimed to be and I can take a guess that any John Smith working for Interpol would look nothing like you as well. So again, _who the __**hell**__ are you?!_"

The man looked back down at the photo. It was a candid shot of him back in the early 70s when he wore his third body. The silver and wavy hair, ruffled shirt and velvet jacket were unmistakable. The sight made him wince, more out of the choice of clothing than out of coming up with an explanation as to how the man in the picture was in fact him. At least it was not a photo of him during his 5th, 6th or 7th bodies. His sense of fashion had been ridiculous back then, looking like some comic book villain obsessed with riddles with all those question mark motifs and that stick of celery. Mind the celery was quite useful.

"Well," he finally spoke, "as for what psychic paper is, it's paper that shows the viewer what I want them to see. Sometimes it can show what the viewer expects to see, such in your case, you actually expected me to be from Interpol. This also suggests you doubt my involvement in the murders and that I'm truthfully trying to stop them." He smirked at Kate's furrowed brow, confirming his suspicions. "Good deductions there. Some would have just fit this whole situation into a box. As for who I am, I'm the Doctor. I am the man you need to help end these murders and catch the true culprit."

"You are a doctor? Doctor who, exactly?" Kate crossed her arms. This man was unnerving her and she didn't like it. Nothing he said made sense.

"No nonononono, not a doctor. The Doctor. Just the Doctor. That's my name."

"Wait a minute." Castle stares at the Doctor. "I recognize that name. On the internet on a few conspiracy sites several years back."

Kate made no comment on the fact that Castle visited those kind of websites. She was used to it by now. "So you are saying that this guy is finally telling the truth?" She looked back at the Doctor. "For all we know, he is just using some internet ghost as a cover up."

"Plausible deduction, but I assure you. I'm not lying. My name is the Doctor." He looked straight at Kate with no sign of speaking anything but the truth.

"'Doctor is not a name. It's an occupation and title." She glanced back at the mirror as she heard a soft rapt coming from behind it. She could also see this Doctor wave his hand at their reflection, or more accurately, at those behind the one way mirror.

"Oh it's my name, alright. Actually I have been told it's the reason you have the word in your language in the first place." The Doctor replied as Kate leaned over to gather her evidence.

"Stay put." She accentuated her words with point her finger down before turning to open the door. "Castle." The novelist smiled at the Doctor with a thumbs up before following his fiancé out of the room.

"_You've_ got _me_ locked up in here. It's not like I can go anywhere," he called after her before adding under his breath, "Although your primitive locks can't even _begin_ to truly imprison me." The Doctor then sat there in the room feeling rather surly. He could understand Detective Beckett's suspicions about him and his motives, but surely by now she would have realized he presented no threat to her. He glared at the knobless, locked door much like a child sent to their room would. Humans can be so thick sometimes.

* * *

"Guess who I just got off the phone? Apparently the man you just brought in," Captain Gates pointed a finger in the general direction of the room where the Doctor sat, "has some serious pull." She was the one who knocked on the one way mirror and immediately pulled Kate and Castle into her office.

"Sir?" Kate replied, sounding rather confused, intrigued and annoyed at the same time.

"The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce."

"I've never heard of them."

"I've never heard of them either, but after a few calls found them completely legitimate and they work for the U.N." The Captain walks around her desk and leans back against it, holding a pad in her hand. "It seems that this organization is a force dedicated to," she reaches for her reader glasses hanging from her neck and puts them on, looking down at the notepad to read from it, "'protecting humankind from any and all outside threat.' A direct quote from the man I spoke to one the phone."

"'Outside threat'? As in-"

"Aliens! See Kate I told you!" Castle interrupted the detective, but his grin faltered at the look on the captain's face.

"Whether aliens from another world exist or not, that is not our concern. Our concern is solving three murders and one attempted murder on very real and very human individuals!" Gates spoke pointedly at the man.

"Sir?" Kate interjected, stepping forward. "Why did they call? How did they know we had this so-called 'John Smith'-"

"He said his name was the Doctor." Castle added with a smirk, but was ignored.

"-was in our custody?"

"He wouldn't discuss that with me." The older woman sounded livid at that, she disliked not knowing things. It was a trait the captain shared with her best detective. Gates sighed in annoyance after a moment's hesitation. "Release him."

"Sir, he may not be our murderer, but-"

"I was given orders from above to let him go." She stared pointedly at the novelist. "Way over Castle's influence."

This made Rick grin excitedly as the captain dismissed them both. The two made their way back to Kate's desk, so that she could call for the release papers.

"You think she meant-" The writer spoke after his partner hung up her phone.

"Castle," She glowered at the man. "Just shut up." Kate couldn't believe her luck. She was going nowhere with this case and the only lead she had within her grasp held pull so high up that she wasn't sure she could find this 'Doctor' a second time if she let him go. And to top that off, Castle's imaginative antics were not making the case any better. Then again, many of the things he stated made more sense. Perhaps this 'Doctor' was this 'misunderstood hero'. Perhaps he would be willing to help her. The detective quickened her pace back to the room storing the mysterious man, her fiancé hot on her heels. She was going to release him, but that didn't mean she was going to let him get away.


	6. The Curse of a Lonely God

**I know it's not as long as the last one and not as long as I would like it to be but I think it's as long as it should.**

**I just hope you all be patient as you all will discover what exactly the Doctor knows about the murders. I'm still trying to figure that one out as well as I keep fleshing out the plot in my head. As I have said before I have many ideas, but still unsure as to how to go about it.**

**I thank you again for all the reviews and encouragement and am glad you are enjoying the story. Please keep up with the reviews as they do make me smile.**

**_Castle_**** quote  
****_Castle_****: Oh, it's really not complicated. You were raised by a single mother. She was blonde, she was beautiful, but she never wanted you. When you were, what, twelve? She died, suddenly. Let's say drug overdose. You went foster care, the bad kind. So much hate. So much hate towards your mother for abandoning you that you kill these women to get back at her. But you leave them looking peaceful because as much as you hated your mother, you loved your mother. Am I getting warm?  
****_Jerry_****: You're drawn to death. You like to be around it, because it thrills you. Now, where does that come from? Your own suppressed impulses? _[Leans forward]_ How close to death do you want to get, huh?**

**_Doctor Who_**** quote  
****_Rory Williams_****: You know what it's dangerous about you? It's not that you make people take risks, it's that you make them want to impress you. You make it so they don't want to let you down. You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around.**

**I chose that particular Castle quote because I'm thinking of delving into the actual reason Castle is fascinated with the macabre. The man does have a darker side to that childish bachelor charm. We've seen it in the two parter Target/Hunt. And it goes with some of Kate's thoughts in this chapter.**

_"Words and laughter wearing thin,  
__Breaking this disguise  
__Where do Angels fear to tread,  
__How can I think to hide?" - "Nightmares" by Chameleon Circuit__  
_

"No. Absolutely no!" The Doctor strode through the busy sidewalk that afternoon, having been released from custody. His coat bellowed back as his hands were tucked in its pockets. His jaw was tense and set, glaring forward to avoid the gaze of his two new shadows.

"Come on, Doc," Castle started.

"My name is _the Doctor_. Not 'Doc'," the Time Lord chided back with great annoyance.

"You promised to tell us everything you knew." Kate quickened her pace some to walk up beside the Doctor.

"What I said was I would tell you what you _need _to know."

"Yea, and that was just to drop the case. You obviously don't know Detective Beckett all that well." Castle snorted.

"Doctor, I am not dropping this case and you know more than you let on. I'm an officer of the law. You are obligated to tell me." Kate leaned herself forward a bit and toward the difficult man, trying to get herself in front of him.

"'Obligated t-" The Doctor stopped and grabbed his hair with growl before turning to Kate, towering over her. "You humans think that nothing can touch you! That the big scary boogeyman isn't real! But I will tell you this," He bared his teeth at her, his voice low and gruff with anger and annoyance. "I have seen things, _done_ things, that would make your head spin and your stomach churn. And those around me always get caught in the crossfire as I try to save this stupid little planet. So do us both a favour and **stop following me!**" He turned back around and kept walking, his shadows still tailing him.

"Kate, did he just say-?" Castle's eyes widened in excitement, but Kate interpreted the Doctor's words differently.

"Who the hell do you think you are? 'You humans'? Don't you _dare_ think you are better than us just because you have connections with powerful people!" she called back at the infuriating man and continued to follow him as he turned the corner into an alleyway.

The Doctor then stopped just in front of a blue box, pausing there briefly to unlock the door as the detective and her partner caught up to him. Castle stared at with immense curiosity. It was made of wood, the blue paint worn and chipped. Each side was divided by eight panels, four down and two across. The top two on each side were windows, divided into six, three across and two down. On top was a black sign with white type saying_ POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX_, the words "public" and "call" were stacked upon each other and in between the words "police" and "box". On the roof of the box was a small lantern light. Double doors spanned across the majority of the front and on the left panel, under the two windows, there read a white sign in black lettering: _Police telephone. Free for use of public. Advice and assistance obtainable immediately. Officers & cars respond to all calls. Pull to open._

Kate, however took no notice of it as the taller man took a step closer to her. Her instincts nearly screamed at her to run and hide from the look that man gave her. His eyes darkened as his thick brows lowered. She almost swore she could smell the cool rain of a good storm in this hot weather. This was why the man felt dangerous. She could tell he was intense and stubborn, and for a brief moment, she thought he looked completely inhuman. However in those raging eyes, Kate saw a familiar glimpse of pain and sorrow. She knew that look. The look of having lost something precious, and by the intensity of those eyes, she knew it was not just the one time.

"You are not getting it." The Doctor finally spoke, his voice soft and surprisingly calm. "I'm dangerous. A hazard to your health. People associated with me, even for the briefest of moments, get hurt. They die, get left behind, traumatized or forget me. I'm doing you a favour." He stepped back to open the door of the blue police box, "I'm walking away before you get _burned_." And with that, the Time Lord shut it behind him.

Kate gawked at the audacity the Doctor had to close the door of that tiny little box in her face. She had half a mind to just stand there and wait until he came out from being too cramped inside. It was then she took a moment to step back and actually look at the box. Her eyes widen in realization. "I've seen this box before." She turned around and took in the surrounding alleyway. "This is the same exact alley I chased that jerk into!"

"Really?" Castle took a step back with her too look around the box. "You never mentioned this before."

"I never remembered it." Kate stepped back to the door.

The Doctor sighed heavily as he leaned against the door inside the TARDIS. The detective was damned persistent, he gave her that, but she didn't truly understood the danger of being around him. He was not lying when he told her she would get burned. All of his companions did. And the longer they traveled with him, the worse it hurt.

Rose, the woman who loved him despite how broken he was and refused to leave his side despite how dangerous things became, was trapped in another universe. Alright, she had been one of the lucky ones, having a semblance of the happy 'ending' that she deserved. He left her there on_ Dårlig Ulv Stranden _with his part human doppelgänger. Even then he didn't have the decency to say what his other could. Those three little big words.

Then there was Martha, the woman whom he could not return the feelings she had for him. Traveling with her was fun but soon became complicated. And he had destroyed her family. For a year, The Year That Never Was, her family were subjected to trauma from his old-time friend the Master. All while he sat in a wheelchair, old and useless, that brave Martha trekked across the Earth to bide himself time and pass on his damned name. And then she left him. There was a soft chime from the TARDIS. Okay, she wasn't that bad off now. She worked for UNIT, no Torchwood with Jack, and was recently married to Mickey. But he still turned her into a soldier.

So what about Donna? Oh Donna. The Doctor Donna. His best friend. The woman who stuck with him even when she saw his darkest moments. The woman who kept him grounded. The most important woman in the world and he killed her. He killed the woman she had grown into from her travels with him. He stole her memories of him as she begged to keep them. In all his traveling, could he have not stopped a moment find a better solution for her?

The Doctor slid down, pulling his knees closer to his chest as he ran a hand through his unruly hair. His eyes glistened at the memory of that redhead pleading to him to let her stay, knowing what he must do to save her from dying. She gained his mind, and for just a moment he could believe that he had found an equal. Someone he can look to and not feel so alone as the last of his kind. But he knew, and he killed that wonderful woman who had finally gained the confidence she deserved to have. He stripped that part away from her. _You did what you had to do. Donna's alive and well_, he tried to convince himself.

In the end, he let them all go, changed or damaged. Just to save them from his cursed life.

"Alright, I get it," the Doctor's head rose as he heard Kate's muffled voice through the door to his ship. "You lost people. People you really cared about and you saw the common denominator was you. That you caused their pain. But this isn't about you or the people you lost. This isn't about that at all. This is about all those families and friends, wondering what happened to their loved ones. They have a right to know. I need to know! So don't you dare sit in there and refuse to help me find those bastards that took something precious from those people on the account that you don't want us to get 'burned'. Because I'll be damned if I walk away from this case."

"Exactly. I go wherever she goes. Plus," Castle stated, "a wise and extraordinary woman once told me.'Life isn't safe, especially not in New York. Cranes collapse and air conditioners fall out of the sky. In the end, there are just a few short years and the most you can do is make the most of it before something knocks you down.'"

"Who said that?"

"Mother. Though I think that was the alcohol talking."

"And you remembered all that verbatim?"

"Why Detective Beckett, I am hurt that you wouldn't think otherwise. I am, as we now know, as brilliant as Shakespeare himself."

Kate rolled her eyes just as the door to the blue box creaked open and a very stern looking Doctor peered out to the both of them. His face was like stone when he kept his gaze at Kate, who refused to back down and look away as he continued for several beats. Then that stoic facade faltered as his lips twitched, turning up into a smile. The detective had not noticed how his previous grins never completely reached his eyes back at the precinct. It was now that she realized as that smile widened, for once it shown in his sparkling brown eyes.

Kate suspected that whatever they had said, her telling him that the victims and their families only mattered or Castle repeating his mother's words of wisdom, the Doctor had seemed to have brightened up, much like Castle had in their early years whenever she called him about a dead body. It sounded callous to many people, but it was his way of dealing with death. The mystery about a murder intrigued him in a way that she may never fully understand, and it was never like the man was without compassion (and sometimes she felt it was misguided at first). The reason behind Castle's obsession with the macabre will forever be a mystery, and Kate was fine with that.

This man, however, the Doctor as he called himself, was a different ball field. The way he seemed to move from one extreme emotion to the other unnerved her even more than the contradictions his body language gave against her cop and woman instincts. She knew the man was dangerous. It was a no brainer from her own gut and the words that came straight out of the horse's mouth (Well Doctor's in this case). However, despite the couple of moments where he seemed to match the uneasiness she felt the moment she saw him, most of the time he appeared completely harmless and even childish. It endeared and irritated her at the same time, much like how Castle had grown on her. During that brief moment of silence between the three of them, Kate started to wonder if the two were alike in personality. She suspected that through this investigation, she will find out exactly how similar the Doctor was to her fiancé.

"Thank you." He finally spoke with complete sincerity to both of them, his eyes glistened in a warm emotion. Even Kate could feel it as her lips curled up in a soft smile. "Well. You have questions and I have answers." The Doctor quickly held his pointer finger up in silence as Kate began to open her mouth and he continued to speak. "And before you start asking those brilliant question of yours, perhaps we should find someplace where we may sit for our chat. Maybe somewhere we can eat as well? I'm famished." And with that, the Doctor closed the door to the blue police box and locked it. With his hands stuffed in his trench coat pockets yet again, he then strode passed the two and out of the alleyway and turned back to them. "Well don't dally there! We have some murders to solve! Allons-y!"

Kate started to follow, Castle at her side, as her cellphone went off. The detective reached to her belt where it was clasped and pulled it up to look at its screen before answering it. "Beckett." She listened to the person on the other side, a male at the Doctor's best guess, but what he was saying the Time Lord could not guess. He watched her with Castle standing beside him as she slowly made her way up to the curb of the street. It was then that Kate's face frowned in confusion as she stopped right in front of the two men. The Doctor knew then what this was about.

"Are you sure about that? He could have kept it from her." Kate looked up to see the looks of interest she was receiving from both the Doctor and Castle, before turning away. "Alright. Contact his do-," she glanced to the Doctor, "physician. Ask Mrs. Harvard if we could have access to her husband's medical records and medical history. I want to get to the bottom of this." She hung up the phone. "That was Ryan."

"I-"

"What-" Both men spoke in unison, but Castle held his hand out to let the Doctor speak instead.

"Ah yes, thank you. I assume by that bewildered look on you face, you have found upon something puzzling? Like perhaps one of the victims did not actually possess epilepsy, nor was there any record of it in his family history?" the Doctor explained, gaining an excited and odd sound coming from the writer.

Kate glared at him. "How did you-? Were you eavesdropping?!"

"No!" He growled. "I would never! Well that's not true I have, but I had no need at this moment. I already knew because I, well," he paused a moment. "I, er, did my own tests." He lied. Kate knew it and had no doubt in her mind that this Doctor somehow managed to gain access of the victim's medical records. No doubt illegally. However, she let that slide and went along with his not-so-clever fib.

"Fine. So it's true that Mr. Harvard had no history of epilepsy, but yet still died of an epileptic stroke."

"Yes, but before I sa-"

"How?"

"We may not know the 'how', but we now know the 'why'." Castle started before the Doctor could not get a word in. "His murder is a cover up. Maybe he found something he wasn't supposed to. Maybe he was about to go to the authorities and those behind the trial killed him to keep him from exposing its danger and thus lose millions in donations that funds their little operation."

"I have a theory." Both Castle and Kate turned their heads to the Doctor. "But as I said. I'm famished." He grinned, that grin that never did quite meet his eyes.

**Oh for those who don't know, ****_Dårlig Ulv Stranden _****is ****_Bad Wolf Bay. _****Literal translations and actually language are inconsistent, as with most foreign languages in media. It is, however, in Norway in the alternate universe known as 'Pete's World'. (Pete was the name of Rose's father who died when she was young in her world, but lived and became a successful entrepeneur and never had Rose.)**

**I only say this because I know I have some readers who are not fans of one or the other, or even both shows, but still like my writing or are friends or family.**

**Again, I welcome the reviews. And if you can't post one because of the chapter I had deleted, go ahead and send it to me via pm is you would like or you can wait for the next chapter.**


	7. An Impossible Word

**Alright. Took me some time, and would have been more time if I had not already written part of the chapter already before I even posted chapter one, but this chapter is now****_ 5000 WORDS LONG!_**** Wow! Who would have thunk it? Never written a chapter this long in my life. A proper length of a chapter.**

**As a warning, My posts might be a bit sporadic until the middle of August. I'm making my FemTen costume, so I most likely will be writing when I'm at work on lunch, when I can't sew. It may take a while because I hope to write more chapters about this length. xD**

**As for this chapter, here it is! The moment you all have been waiting for! Captain Jack Harkness! Yes, this is the chapter in which the sneak peek had come from, with some details changed and so forth. Also, this chapter has a spoiler alert if you have not watched Torchwood's Children of Earth. There is some angsty bits and some funny bits and a some drinking!**

**superlc52p: Thank you for sure a lengthy and positive review! I like lengthy! Loved how you told me what bits you liked and such. And they WILL go inside. It's taking a lot of thought on how to go about it, but regardless I will make it happen. I think it's important because that will be the moment that Kate will finally be able to believe in the impossible. At least when it's concerning the Doctor. And it was both of what they said to convince the Doctor to come out. You'll find their words will tag team a lot in this to help inspire a very tired and broken Doctor. I also hear their voices when I write, it's what helps me make their dialogue believable to the characters. There is nothing more annoying when a fanfic writer has a character say something a way that they would not normally say it. xD**

**Ford B: Thank you!**

**SINcerely Satan: Mine, too! It's why I'm writing this!**

**_Castle_**** quote  
****_Beckett_****: Why is it so important to you that I believe all this stuff about fates, psychics, and Santa Claus?  
****_Castle_****: Because, if you don't even believe in the possibility of magic, you will never ever find it. - ****_He's Dead, She's Dead_**

**_Doctor Who_**** quote  
****_Marco Polo_****: On my travels to Cathay, Ian, I have come to believe many things I'd previously doubted. For instance, when I was a boy in Venice, they told me that in Cathay there was a stone that burned. I did not believe, but there is such a stone: I have seen it. And if stone burns, why not a caravan that flies? Birds fly; I have even seen fish that fly. You are asking me to believe that your caravan can defy the passage of the sun? Move not merely from one place to another, but from today into tomorrow, today to yesterday? No Ian, that I cannot believe. - ****_Marco Polo_**

_"He says, 'Son, can you play me a memory  
I'm not really sure how it goes  
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete  
When I wore a younger man's clothes.' _

_"Sing us a song, you're the piano man  
Sing us a song tonight  
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody  
And you've got us feelin' alright" - "Piano Man" by Billy Joel_

"Fine then, we will get a something to eat, but no more stalling. You can explain on the way." Kate gave a pointed glare to the madman in front of her, who only smirked in appraise.

"Fair point, though I should say that much of what have to tell you I would rather not speak of in such noisy street. I mean New York is so noisy. I don't ever remember London being this noisy." The Doctor's face scrunched up as he looked around before returning his gaze back to Kate and Rick. "I would invite you back to the privacy of my sh- I mean box, but that is a whole can of worms I'd rather not-I mean," his tone began to sound practiced. "as you can see, I don't think we could, er, all fit in there, don'tcha think?"

As much as Kate knew that this blue box of the Doctor's was too small to fit the three of them comfortably, it was yet another contradiction she had to add to the list she had already mentally created about this odd man. He was hiding behind a lie. He was hiding the fact that he believed they would all fit in that box, no matter how impossible she thought of it. But with that slip of the tongue, he couldn't possibly was about to say what she thought he was. Kate glanced to Castle, seeing that he was thinking the same thing. The only difference was he was excited and very curious about the prospect, while it only made her more irritable. Kate had no patience to deal with crazy people at this moment.

"We can use my office. Not at the loft." Castle added after having given a stern look from his future wife. "There's food and it's quiet. Plus Abbey makes the best coffee you have ever tasted."

"That settles it. Good ole Ricky, lead the way!" the Doctor cried out with much enthusiasm. Hands in his pockets, he followed Castle and Beckett through the thick crowd of pedestrians. He lamented about years gone during one of the few times he had visited New York. It was the height of the Prohibition, and even though he never truly took to alcohol, the Time Lord couldn't resist the temptation of visiting such an iconic time in American history. He was traveling with Rose at the time and although the memory pained him, he still smiled as he recalled the look on that blonde's face when he told her they were going to visit a real American speakeasy. He missed that look. The look all his companions had when he took them to amazing places.

The Doctor grinned like a loon, completely lost in his reverie, that he barely missed the sign he was about to walk under as the detective and her unconventional partner descended down the steps. He had paused, staring at the sign in disbelief. "Noooo!" He growled out in awe, his mouth wide open.

Kate stopped and looked back, her brow furrowed in confusion as Rick's lips curled some in pride. "What is it?" she questioned carefully.

The Time Lord's gaze shifted down to Castle. "You OWN The Old Haunt? THE The Old Haunt?" His opened mouth twisted into a wide mad grin and he laughed.

Castle's eyes lit up as he took a couple of steps up to the Doctor. "I know! Really! I bought the place after Kate and I solved the murder of the previous owner, Donny Hayes." Kate rolled her eyes as Rick continued. "He was killed by an 1875 St. Miriam Rock of Scotland, which was hidden away in Mayor Jimmy Walker's secret stash." The novelist was hissing with excitement, grinning as he saw the amazement fill the other man's eyes.

"What!"

"I know! A complete waste!"

"Noooo! Good ole Beau James's private collection?! Weeell, when I mean by good I mean rather devious," he paused, "and pretty lecherous, BUT a fantastic pianist! Learned a few tricks, that is when he could keep his hand on the keys instead of," the Doctor pauses again, tugging on his earlobe as his voice lowered, "other places." He sniffed uncomfortably as he noticed the other two were looking at him in strange confusion. He realized he had started rambling and with no companion to elbow him that his mouth ran faster than his brain. He bit his bottom lip. "Right."

"If you two girls are done giggling over a bar," Kate got a playful glare from her fiancé, "why don't we head inside?" She trained her eyes on the Doctor. "You have a lot of explaining to do." And with that she turned around and descended down the stairs and through the door, Castle behind her like a puppy following its master.

The Doctor cleared his throat while scratching the back of his head. "Yes, Ma'am," he mumbled as a small smile escaped his lips. It had been a while since he had been ordered about like that and the memory it gave him was bittersweet.

He followed the two down into the pub and walked through the doors, looking around in awe. The place had not changed one bit. The goofy grin reappeared on the Time Lord's face once more as he moved around, looking at the various pictures on the wall, most of them new since his last visit to the place. He noticed the one of a younger Richard Castle and walked to it, leaning forward to study the image for a moment. "How long ago was this picture taken?" He leaned back and turned around to face the couple. "I mean it had to be before your dau-"

The next thing the Doctor knew was pain and saw white stars in his vision. His jaw ached and as he grimaced, he felt a sting on his lip, making him hiss. "Oh wow! I know I may have caused a bit of trouble last time I was here, but.." He looked up to see Castle pulling him up from the floor, (how did he end up down there?) and soon noticed Beckett handcuff a man in a blue military coat.

"Ooh, bondage. My safe word is bananas." The Doctor recognized that smooth and flirtatious voice. Of course it would make sense, his mind registering the handcuffed man bent over the table. Blue eyes pierced at the Time Lord like daggers. That familiar square jaw and dimpled chin tense from misdirected anger. Or completely accurately directed anger. Both were plausible and the Doctor knew it.

He gingerly touch his bloody lip, glancing down at his own orange-red blood smeared on his finger before he spoke up. "Kate. It's alright." His voice was low and tone serious as he pulled a handkerchief from inside his suit pocket and wiped the blood from his finger. He then dabbed it against the cut on his lip until it ceased to bleed and tucked the handkerchief back in his pocket as he looked back up to the detective. His gaze stayed there for just a second before it settled back down to the arrested man again.

Beckett looked at the Doctor quizzically. "You know him?" Her question received an obviously glare and the detective nodded before releasing the man and letting him stand up straight, still handcuffed. The man walked right up to the Doctor. Despite being slightly shorter than the skinner man, the attacker managed to give of the air of towering over the Time Lord, his strong chin lifted and his eyes narrowed. The Doctor stared right back at the handsome man, his face completely voided of emotion, however his eyes carried a heaviness and this strange, mad man looked infinitely older than he should.

"Jack," the Doctor started after a beat.

"Where were you?!" The man named Jack hissed. Kate could see the pain and grief around his angry blue eyes. It was an all too familiar look she had come across hundreds of times on her job and even personally experienced it herself.

"Jack." the Time Lord took in a deep breath, his voice becoming rougher as he seemed to fought back some kind of overwhelming emotion. "I am sorry. I'm so, so very sorry." He paused a beat, swallowing away his guilt. "It was a fixed point in time. There was nothing I could have done."

"You could have done something! You could have been there!" Jack took a step back and looked down at the floor. "Steven...and I-Ianto." He looked back up at his friend. "Both are dead! Fixed point in time or not, you should have been there! We all needed you. I needed you!" Jack's eyes flared and the Doctor swallowed again before looking down at the floor, his jaw tight as he kept his face stoic. "Maybe you couldn't have saved them, but you of all people know what it's like. Sacrificing those you love for the sake of the world. For the universe."

This was the point in the conversation where Kate and Rick looked to one another is slight confusion. Fixed point in time? Saving the world, no, universe? Kate realized this was sounding more and more like a science fiction novel. But instead of interrupting them with questions, she continued to watch, letting the two men talk, curious as to where it was to lead them.

The Doctor finally looked back up at Jack when he spoke the truth. He was the only one who could fully grasp the pain from killing someone you care for to save millions upon millions of lives. And he left Jack to experience it alone. "You're right." The pain in his two hearts finally filtered on his face as he took a step forward to Jack, his hand reach into his coat pocket to pull out his sonic screwdriver. "I should have been there." He pointed the device around Jack and with its familiar sound, the handcuffs that bound the arrested man's wrists opened, before he slipped it back into his coat pocket. "I was a coward." The Doctor looked away from Jack. "I knew I couldn't stop the events. If I had come, I would have had to explain to you that both deaths were fixed points in time." The Doctor's brown eyes shined a bit as he continued keep his gaze from Jack for a bit longer before returning it back to him. "I would have had to explain how Ianto's death was meant to happen so that you would do what you could never have done. How sacrificing Steven's life to save billions of lives, without my help," brown eyes stared right into blue as the Time Lord's voice grew more unstable from his guilt and pain, "so that you could show, so that the whole Earth could show, the rest of the universe that you lot are not to be trifled with." His eyes grow wide and mad. "So yea. I should have been there." His lips pursed. "But you should know by now, Jack. I'm a coward, and a deserter." After that, the Doctor turned, hands in his pockets, and walked passed the three of them, back to where Castle's office was, their original destination.

"You're not a coward."

The Time Lord stopped and turned to Rick, the other two staring at him in slight awe. He watched Castle for a beat before walking back to the three of them. The Doctor's head tilted down to study the writer, his eyes boring into the other man. "You don't know me."

"I know your kind." Castle stared right back at the man's fierce gaze, the writer's own face sober. "You act like you don't care, hiding behind a façade of odd remarks and silly antics. But behind that is a man who has experience horrible things. He has seen so much darkness in mankind that would cause anyone to give up hope. But he still fights to defend those weaker than him. He still fights for justice and fairness. And he still fights for those he cares most, because deep down he has to. He has to continue to fight because there is nothing as powerful as the look on another face when you come to their aid, when you right what was wronged, and you give them the hope to carry on. You lose that, lose the reason to fight, and you fear what you might become."

Kate stared at her fiancé in strange awe. She knew he had a knack for reading people and understanding their motives, but she never heard Castle speak with such sincere experience. Save the time he spoke a convincing story, the reason why he decided to become a murder mystery writer. But something in her gut told her this wasn't one of Rick's stories. So what experiences was he talking about? She started to wonder if the story of the little boy was true. Did Castle witness a murder when he was a child? After pondering all this, she realized Castle was right. The Doctor was not a coward.

"I imagine whatever happened," Kate began, "it was not an easy choice to leave it alone. I can guess that if you had interfered, things would be worse, but it still would have been easier to try. I know that sometimes walking or turning away looks easier to others who don't understand." Kate glanced to her fiancé. There had been a few times in her life when looking away was the most difficult thing she could have done. She looked back to the Doctor. "But to not do so, something worse would happen. Walking away when it's the hardest thing to do does not make you a coward." She then glanced to Jack, who watched her carefully, taking in her words.

Silence fell in the empty pub for several beats after Rick and Kate spoke, all looking back to the Doctor, whose expression had softened. His lips curled slightly in a thankful smile before he reached out and pulled her into a hug. Kate had blinked a few times, her body stiff from the surprise, but she soon relaxed and wrapped her arms around the man's waist as he finally spoke. "Thank you." He cleared his throat and pulled back, giving an apologetic glance to Castle for grasping his fiancé before pulling him into a hug as well. "Both of you. Again," the Doctor continued as the writer just smiled and nodded knowingly, hugging back.

The Time Lord then pulled away as he scratched his chin and looked to Jack, biting his lip when the larger man moved to him. The two stared at one another for what seemed like ages. Then Jack lifted his hands to cup the skinny man's angular jaw line between them. "They're both right, you know. You are not a coward." He glanced down at the Time Lord's split lip and grimaced apologetically. "Sorry about the right hook."

"It was well deserved," the Doctor replied before grinning like a loon again. Jack followed up with a grin himself and gently slapped the other man's cheek affectionately before pulling him into a hug. Both men patted each other on the backs. Thoughts of how they missed each other took over any dark emotions from their pasts as they pulled apart, and Jack noticed a missing body.

"Where's that lovable redhead you were traveling with? Donna, no wait! The 'DoctorDonna'?" Jack grinned at the memory of the three Doctors, but it soon quickly faded at the look on his friend's face. Kate could tell that whoever this Donna woman was, she was a reason the Doctor had initially refused to work with her.

After a long pause, the Doctor cleared his throat, putting back on one of his famous facades over the look of pain from loss. "Well, I guess introductions are in order." He straightened his suit and coat. "Kate and Rick. This is a very old friend of mine, Captain Jack Harkness. Jack, these are Detective Kate Beckett and Mister Richard Castle."

Jack extended his hand out to both of them, giving his signature charming smile to both detective and writer, whom each accepted a handshake offer. "It is a pleasure to meet the two of you."

"Jaaack! Stop it."

"I was just shaking their hands." The captain looked back at his friend, grinning knowingly.

"They are engaged. About to be marri-oh for goodness sake, like that ever would stop you." The Doctor rolled his eyes as Jack's grin grew wider. "Anyways. We came here for a reason."

Kate raised a suspicious brow at the tall man. "Wait, I never told you Castle and I are engaged."

"Engagement ring on your finger and quite frankly, it's obvious you two are in some form of a romantic relationship, and I can tell you are not the adulterer type." The Doctor's brows furrow. "And why do you call him Castle? Not Rick. You are going to be married after all."

"Doctor..." Jack chided, reminding his friend of his manners.

"Not that it's any of my business," the Doctor added soon after.

"She only calls me Rick when we are alone." Castle commented with a smirk.

"Watch it, or I'll start calling you 'Kitten'." Kate replied, gaining a glare from her partner. "But we are getting off track," she looked straight at the Doctor, "again."

"Right! Let's have a sit," the Doctor gestured to one of the booths.

"What about him?" Kate nodded her head to the captain.

"Jack," the Doctor glanced to his friend, "can listen. He's proven himself useful."

"Jee, Thanks," the captain quipped in sarcasm, in which the taller man frowned in feign hurt at the man. "I heard about the murders. Came to check it out myself," Jack added. "Though I didn't exactly expect to see you, again."

"Nor I you." The Time Lord, hands in pockets, walked to the booth and slid into a seat.

"Alright, you were going to explain what exactly killed our three victims and put a fourth into a coma." Kate followed him and slid into the booth as well, across the table from the Doctor, Jack sitting beside him and Castle beside her.

The Doctor leaned forward with his hands clasped together, fingers intertwining. He ignored Jack's arm that carefully placed itself behind him on the back of the seat, the captain's leg propped up with the ankle on his thigh as he turned toward the Time Lord. Instead, the Doctor kept his gaze at Kate, whose hands mimicked his, staring right back at him.

Immediately, the fair skinned Abbey came over with mugs and a pot of coffee and asked if they wanted anything. No one wanted anything until Rick said it was on the house and then it was only the Doctor that had asked for some hot tea. Abbey quickly returned with the Doctor's order and made sure there was nothing else the four needed before walking back to the bar to the bar.

"So?" Kate spoke after several beats, while the Time Lord studied her. She was beginning to become impatient with the man's stalling.

"You are a woman of fact," the Doctor started, speaking softly and carefully. "A realist. Anything that is seemingly impossible to you,you take with a grain of salt."

"You said that you were going to tell me what you know, not profile me."

His eyes narrowed, ignoring the detective's impatience. Kate saw the cold gaze in his eyes, complete opposite of the goofy and carefree façade he held before. This madman meant business.

"I say this because I want you to fully understand that what I'm about to tell you will shatter the line you hold between what is real and what is fiction. I want to make sure you are ready to hear what I know because, frankly, I can't have your skepticism getting in the way." It was a warning that made Kate unnerved again, and it annoyed her greatly. She was not going to let this man treat her like some ignorant child.

"I'm not going to let anything stop me from discovering the truth," Kate replied with much determination.

"Be careful what you wish for." Jack added. He held the same gaze as the Doctor, but with a bit more warmth. Like he wanted to protect her from some horrible truth. Either the captain knew what his friend knew, or at the very least had an idea. This only made Kate even more anxious and techy.

She glanced to her partner, who turned back at her with a smirk on his face. He was like a child in a candy shop. The detective shook her head and sighed. "Fine. I'm ready. Tell me."

"Are you sure?" The Doctor raised a brow at her, but nodded after receiving a deathly glare from the woman. He leaned back against the seat, his head bowed forward but his eyes still on her. With most people he had encountered, he could go on and blatantly tell the truth, regardless of the repercussions. However the woman sitting across the table from him he believed to the epitome of a no-nonsense persona. He wanted to make sure she was ready. The last thing he needed was to ruin yet another living being's life. "Promise me that what ever I have to say, you will keep an opened mind to the impossible."

Kate's eyes narrowed at the man before nodding. "I promise." Whatever this Doctor had to say could not possibly be as bad as he was making it out to be. Detective Kathryn Beckett could handle anything he threw at her.

"You swear it?"

"Oh for the love of-!" Kate pushed herself to the back of the booth. "Yes, I swear I will keep an opened mind. Now spill."

The Doctor nodded. "What do you know about Delta waves?"

"It's a wavelength that our brains give off when we are in nonREM sleep." Castle stated.

"Research for another one of your books?" Kate asked.

"No. Junior high school project. I was helping Alexis with her research on how lack of different stages of sleep can affect our functioning. Turns out it was actually interesting. Like did you know that you actually dream in nonREM sleep?"

"I don't see how sleep is anywhere related to our murders." Kate pointed out to Castle.

"Not sleep, parse, but Delta waves are connected to our subconscious. Even as a being meditates, they become more prominent. Some humans even are born with a higher emission of the waves than others. These people are highly intuitive people. Even borderline psychic."

"Come on! Now you are talking like one of Castle's sci-fi comics."

"Hey! It could be real!" Castle protested.

"Psychic energy is not science fiction. It is quite real, though humans have less potential for it. It's why you lot haven't discovered it's full use yet. Mind you, without the help of the mind numbing work of reality television and those mobile games, like the one where you fling cross birds to destroy homes of unsuspecting pigs. I mean, whatever did they do to you?"

"Doctor," Jack reminded the man.

"But, I'm getting ahead of myself. However the case may be, psychic energy is real."

"What you are saying is complete and utter nonsense. Are you actually trying to tell me that the cause of death is psychic energy?" Kate was not going to let herself go along with this charade of the Doctor's. This was not like one of Castle's crazy theories. This man actually believed what he was saying. "I'm not buying that." She scooted towards Castle, indicating him to move, but he stays put. "Castle, we are leaving."

"Kate just hear him out." Rick reached his hand out to her shoulder to calm her down, but she instead pulled away.

"No! I'm not going to listen to some nutjob over bullshit information. I have three murders to solve, not to mention an attempted one. I have no time to wait on crackpot theories."

"Kate.."

"'Kitten', MOVE!" The detective glared up at her fiancé for several beats before the man sighed in defeat and shifted out of the booth, letting Kate get up. "I'll be staying at my own place tonight. Tell Martha I will pick the dress up tomorrow." She stated, her gaze avoiding him, along with the Doctor and Jack, before she walked to the exit.

Castle watched her go through the door and disappear up the stairs to the streets of New York before he turned back to the other two men. "Sorry about that. She's under a lot of pressure."

"Nono! I should have been," the Doctor glanced to Jack, trailing off.

"Sometimes, Doctor, subtly is not your forte." Jack clasped his hand on his friend's shoulder before looking up to Castle. "You not gonna go after her?"

"Nah," Castle sat back down across from the other two. "It's best to just leave Kate alone when she is in this state of mind for a little bit. She will come back around."

"Oh yea, I remember when one of my late wives would get into moods that could take down an entire Dalek fleet with just one of her glares." Jack chuckles. "But boy she could do things you would not believe."

Castle chuckled along with the captain as he got up once more. "I think I need a drink. You want anything? Again, on the house."

"Sure. Anything is good with me." Jack replied. "What about you, Doctor? What poison will you have?" When Jack turned back to him, he saw the Time Lord's paled face. He was staring out, focused on something Jack could not see. The captain lifted his hand to snap his fingers in the other man's line of vision, making him blink and look back to the captain.

"I'm fine," the Time Lord replied.

"Doc," Jack whispered softly to keep his words private to only his friend, as Castle walked away to the bar to order some drinks. The captain knew full well his friend's impeccable hearing would allow him to hear Jack's words. "As your friend, I advise you to get just as smashed as any human would. You think you might be hiding it well, but I know you have been through hell. I can see it on your face, Doctor. In your eyes."

"Jack, I can't. Someone out there is using highly advance psychic technology to do who knows what, and I've got to find those responsible and-"

"And you know perfectly well you can't get drunk or stay drunk unless you let yourself. Now I'm telling you, you need to let yourself get inebriated. I'm not taking no for an answer."

"Neither am I," replied Castle as he set three shot glasses down, a full bottle of vodka, and three glasses of mixed drinks on the table. He planned to get hammered, even thought he knew he would pay dearly for it in the morning. Not to mention Kate might silently give him hell for it.

The Doctor frowned as he saw that the drink The novelist sat in front of him was mixed with orange juice. "Is that?"

"A Harvey Wallbanger." Castle replied as he poured vodka in the three shot glasses and threw one back. "Asked Abbey to surprise us, so she said this one was for you. She's talented at picking drinks."

_"One! One word! Shake, milk-shake, milk! Milk! No? Not milk! Um, shake, shake, shake! Cocktail shake! What, d'you want a Harvey Wallbanger?"_

_"Harvey Wallbanger?"_

_"Well, I don't know!"_

_"How is Harvey Wallbanger one word?_"

The Doctor shook his head as the memory invaded his mind, hearing the voices as if he had traveled back just to hear her voice. The Time Lord leaned back and rubbed his face with a sigh. He was getting old. That or the memory felt a little too real.

"Doctor?" Jack inquired.

"I'm fine," the Time Lord replied gruffly before leaning forward once more, grabbing the shot glass and chasing the bittersweet thoughts away with one gulp.

* * *

It was a fine night as the three men staggered out of the Old Haunt at 1 o'clock in the morning. The Doctor had taught the young writer many of the wonderful drinking songs he had picked up on his travels, some of them not even spoken in any language known to Earth. They were not particularly loud in their singing, and both Jack and Rick used each other's instability for support as they stumbled about. Even the Doctor had some issues walking in a straight line as he allowed the amount of alcohol he consumed have its sway over him.

Both he and Jack however, had made sure Castle didn't drink too much. While the both of them could not die of alcohol poisoning (well, technically Jack could, but he'd just bounce back up), neither one forgot how fragile regular humans were. So not too long ago, the Doctor had made the brilliant choice of making sure he and Jack's new-found friend got home safely, while all three still are completely inebriated.

The Doctor walked slightly ahead of the other two, singing along with them when he suddenly stopped moving and grew completely silent. It took a moment for Jack and Castle to realize what had happened as they stopped just passed the other man, looking back.

"Doctor?" Jack frowned and looked in the direction of where his friend was staring, seeing nothing. He then he saw his friend's face. It was pale and all evidence of last few drinks had vanished. His nostrils were flared and his eyes unbelievably wide. There was one word Jack would use to describe that look on the Doctor's face. A look that made his stomach turn to lead. Painful fear.

"Doctor?" Jack said again as he walked to the taller man and stood in the way of his gaze. "What is it?"

The Doctor just stood there in silence for a few beats. He was completely still and stared right through Jack as the man walked closer and placed his hands on the Time Lord's shoulders. It was then the Doctor finally uttered one word. A word that sent the captain's heart racing. An impossible word.

"Rose."

**Yes. I did. And no, it's not what you think. You will see how Rose is involved in this plot, but trust me, it's not what you think.**

**And again, Please please PLEASE! Review me! Tell me I'm brilliant! Tell me I'm a genius! Tell me I suck and that you don't ever want to read another chapter of this gods awful story! xD **

**Oh! And actually, go ahead an tell my your ideas on what might happen next or how Rose is involved. I love seeing theories and such and I ahve already been spreading some clues and themes already. Go ahead! Be creative! Who knows, I might use it if I like it and if you let me. xD**


	8. A Rose Forever After

**Alright! Sorry for taking such a long time with this chapter. Thing had gone postal on my costume, mistakes had to be fixed and I'm still not done with it. However I wanted to get this chapter out before the con at least and when I finally figured out how to make it longer than just under 2000 words.**

**As for the name of the chapter, it was originally going to be the previous chapter's name, but a family member helped me come up with a better one because I really wanted the who Rose bit as a surprise. For those who don't watch Castle, "A Rose Forever After" is the name of one of Castle's books and the name of one of the episodes that introduces us to Castle's old flame, Kyra. She was 'the one who got away'.**

**Anywhoo. Thanks for being patient. And as always, keep up with the reviews.**

**Oh! And everyone! I got a beta writer! No more misspellings and missing words! YAY!**

**Smarvin: Thank you. I try to keep my characters in character. It's a hazard of my obsessive tenancies. And the matching of the Doctor's emotions and placement in his timestream is really crucial to this story. You will see for yourself.**

**StoneStorm22995: Thank you. And you will see by the end of this chapter whether you are right or wrong about Rose. xD Also I LOVE Man with No Name! I've read it like four or five times! It's what inspired me to write my own Doctor Who crossover.**

**Crystallea1321: Haha! love the Ten's 'wellll' reference. IF you hated the cliff-hanger, then you will really hate me fore this chapter. xD Nah, not a big cliff-hanger like last chapter, but don't worry, you will find out why the Doctor's said "Rose."**

**_Castle_ Quote**  
**_Beckett_: I'm sorry...I shouldn't have kept secrets.**  
**_Castle_: It's who you are. You don't let people in. I've had to scratch and claw for every inch-**  
**_Beckett_: Castle-**  
**_Castle_: Please let me finish. I've been doing a lot of thinking about us, about our relationship. What we have. Where we're headed. I've decided I want more. We both deserve more.**  
**Beckett: I agree.**  
**_Castle_: So whatever happens...whatever you decide...(_Castle gets off the swing and kneels in front of Beckett_) Katherine Houghton Beckett...(_he pulls out an engagement ring and holds it up_)...will you marry me? - _Watershed_**

**_Doctor Who _quote  
__****Rose**: Hold on, this is the parallel universe right?  
_**The Doctor**_: You're back home.  
_**Donna**_: And the walls of the world are closing again, now that the reality bomb never happened. It's dimensional retro-closure. See, I really get that stuff now.  
_**Rose**_: No but, I've spent all that time trying to find you, I'm not going back now.  
_**The Doctor**_: But you've got to, because we saved the universe, but at a cost, and the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks, he committed genocide, he's too dangerous to be left on his own.  
_**Meta-Crises Doctor**_: You made me.  
_**The Doctor**_: Exactly. You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge. Remind you of someone? That's me when we first met, and you made me better. Now you can do the same for him.  
_**Rose**_: But he's not you.  
_**The Doctor**_: He needs you, that's very me. - _Journey's End_  


_When the night has been too lonely  
And the road has been too long,  
And you think that love is only  
For the lucky and the strong,  
Just remember in the winter  
Far beneath the bitter snows  
Lies the seed that with the sun's love  
In the spring becomes the rose. - "Rose" by Bette Midler_

_Earlier that night…_

The clicking of Detective Kate Beckett's heels was drowned out by the bustle of the afternoon street as first shift was coming to an end. She left her fiancé's bar in a blazing fury.

She wasn't going to let this man from another country tell her absurdities as he tried to weasel his way on to her case. If he wanted to pursue this case on his own, then fine by her. She wasn't going to stop him. But to claim the murders were related to something as ridiculous as psychic energy was going way beyond her scope of reality. Even that talk of fixed points in time was too much for the detective to handle.

Who did these two men think they were? Time-travelers?

Kate sighed as she slowed her pace back to the precinct. Okay, she could admit that despite how unrealistic the Doctor's theories were, they made more sense than anything she could come up with. So far there was no sign of how three people, seemingly unconnected, died mysteriously of an epileptic stroke. Not to mention, one of the victims had no history of epilepsy at all.

Kate started to pull out her phone, but blinked down as it started to ring. She swiped her finger across the screen to answer it.

"Beckett."

"Um, Detective Beckett? This is Laura Powell from Tech Forensics," Kate recognized the timid voice.

Laura Powell was one of their top computer science technicians, but always preferred a computer screen to actual face-to-face communication. Getting her to call you back was usually a nightmare, but she was efficient. The fact she was calling the detective now on her own must have meant it was important.

"Hey. What do you have for me, Laura?" Kate always put on her friendliest voice around the girl. The detective even called the tech by her first name instead of her surname, as a means to let the girl warm up to her. Beckett was one of the few detectives who had the patience to deal with her socially awkward tendencies. Castle found her endearing to the point of following her around a bit, taking copious notes on the girl's personality, until Kate mercifully convinced the man to leave her alone.

"Uh, I think I might have found something on that oval device you gave me? It's emitting lots of energy and at an impossible amount. Also…," She paused, sounding really nervous. Kate waited patiently for her to continue. "There's something else. Something I think you should see for yourself."

"I'll be right there, Laura."

"Okay," Laura replied before hanging up.

* * *

Thanks to Kate's fast reflexes, she avoided running face first into Kevin Ryan as he started to step off the elevator when the doors opened.

Instead of getting off, the male detective stepped back in, letting Kate in to ride the elevator together, "I just talked to Mr. Simmons and the families of the other two victims. Turns out none of them originally had epilepsy. However, each of them were being treated for various types of psychological conditions. Christian Delgado, our first vic, was being treated with severe anxiety disorder. Our homeless guy, Terry Whitman, had paranoid schizophrenia. Mr. Simmons was and still is being treated for bipolar disorder."

"What about our second victim, Kelsey Harvard?"

"That's the kicker. He's the only one without any psychological illnesses or conditions. However, all except him were part of some kind of trial by a New-Age Pharmaceutical and Medical company called Third Eye. And guess who was one of the company's biggest contributors toward research?"

"Kelsey Harvard. Run a background check on this company. I want to know everything there is to know about Third Eye," Kate looked up to the floor indicator as the elevator bell dinged and she started out when the door opened.

"Oh! Kate! Is it true?" Ryan hollered after Beckett. She turned around to look at him as he placed a hand on the elevator door to stop it from closing.

"Is what true?"

"That guy from this morning. Is he really an alien?" Ryan asked, half curious.

Kate was getting rather tired of the whole charade, but recognizing the effort to lighten the mood caused by the frustration and confusion on this strange case, she gave a playful smile back at Ryan, "I suggest you and Espo bet on something real instead on whether or not the so-called Doctor is human or not. You have a baby to provide for after all."

With that, Kate walked away as the doors to the elevator closed, sending Ryan on to his destination. She walked down the corridor to the back lab where Laura worked. It was then that she felt a chill crawl up her spine, telling her something wasn't right.

Kate quickened her pace to the door of the girl's lab to find the usually closed gateway to the reclusive tech's lab ajar. Kate pulled out her issued firearm from its holster and unlocked the safety, "Laura?"

Beckett pushed the door open slowly to peek in, letting it open all the way. Her eyes widened at the chaotic state of the lab. Laura was always particular as to how it looked.

"Laura?" Kate called out again, this time with more urgency as she made her way carefully through the lab to where the girl spent most of her time. As she moved closer to the end of a counter, Kate could see a pool of dark red liquid.

Blood.

She rushed around to see the lifeless body of Laura Powell lying awkwardly on the dark-tiled floor. There was a single red rose lain delicately over her chest and a note folded over it. Kate pulled out her phone.

"This is Detective Kate Beckett, badge number 41319. I'm calling in a murder inside the precinct. I need the building on full lockdown and a team straight away to Lab 456."

She didn't need to check the girl's pulse. Her open lifeless eyes and bullet wound through the middle of her head told the detective the tech was already dead.

* * *

Abbey waved goodbye to her fellow co-workers and to Rick and his friends. The skinny one with wild brown hair was looking at her strangely. She pulled out her pigtail braids and shook the pale locks, as she exited the bar. Her shift was over and she was eager to get home to her partner, Laura. That is, if she didn't get held up at work again. The blonde pulled out her cell and called her lover's number. After a couple of rings, the voicemail message started up and Abbey waited patiently for the beep.

"Hey, baby. I just got off work and now I'm heading home. I was just seeing if you were off yet. You have no idea the day I have been having. You know those strange vibes I get sometimes? Well, I just got a whammy of a one when my boss and your co-worker Detective Beckett came in with this scruffy looking guy wearing a suit and trench coat, even in this kind of heat. I don't know… Something about him strikes me as odd. Didn't help that he kept giving me this weird look after I served him, Rick, and this other guy their drinks. It was like he was just as unsure about me as I was about him. I don't know. I could be over-thinking things again. Anyways, I guess you might still be at work, so just give me a call when you're heading home. Bye."

She hung up.

The blonde had met Laura when other forensic technicians dragged the shy girl to The Old Haunt for some drinks. The two of them hit it off as she served them all their drinks and even stayed after her mid-shift. Abbey had then asked for Laura's number and from their first date onward, the two had been in a relationship for almost a year now. With Rick's wedding coming up, it made the blonde wonder how serious their relationship would be.

Abbey stopped suddenly as a chilling feeling ran through her spine. Something was wrong. Something was really wrong and she suddenly felt the urge to drop by the precinct. She turned around and headed in the opposite direction, picking up her pace.

* * *

This was always the most difficult part. No matter how many times she did this, it never got any easier. Kate stared at the phone on her desk. Every call she had to make to a loved one of the deceased, made her relive that moment when she and her father came home from dinner to learn of her mother's fate.

It wasn't that she could never leave that moment behind her. She didn't want to leave it. Kate believed it was that moment that helped make her be a better detective. It wasn't just her tenacity and drive. She put herself in the shoes of those left behind. She related herself to those who had lost a loved one as she had once.

"I can call her if you want."

Kate looked up to see Javi sit down in the chair next to her desk, "I know you were closer to Laura and Abbey than the rest of us."

She shook her head, "I should do it."

"Have you called Castle yet?"

"No… He's at The Old Haunt with "the Doctor" and some friend of his we met there," She sat there for a moment before leaning back and staring right at her friend. "He said the murder weapon was psychic energy. Can you believe that?"

"Who? Castle?"

"No. The Doctor."

"I don't know about psychic energy, but I do know a weird case when I see one, and this makes all those others we've had look like cake. That and your new odd little friend-"

"He's not my friend," She glared at the Hispanic man, who only quirked a smirk.

"Friend or not, he's in the middle of this. Now I know you, Kate. We've been working together for how many years? And I know you don't want to believe all this crazy shit is real. Hell, I don't want to believe it's all real. You know me. I like the simple cases. But one thing I do know, life has been more interesting around here at the precinct thanks to all the odd cases we've had in the past few years. Some of them were downright fun. I get why you like them. It's more challenging. It makes you think on a different level. It lets you open your mind to different possibilities than just the one seemingly obvious answer."

"You're starting to sound like Castle."

"And I think he's got it right. Besides, it's fun pretending to believe in all that mumbo-jumbo crap. It's like being a kid again."

"Until someone gets hurt."

"All I'm saying is that this Doctor guy is in the middle of all of this. He's our go-to guy and he's already been singled out by Laura's killer. We need him. Gates managed to get some files on him from that UNIT group. Most of it is blacked out, but of what we can see, he knows his stuff. And I really do believe he wants to help."

Kate stared back at Esposito for a while before nodding, "I'm starting to agree. Get all the evidence together. Hopefully he'll still be there once I'm done talking to Abbey."

Esposito nodded and stood before walking off, letting Kate return to the phone. She picked it up and dialed Abbey's cell phone number.

"Hello, Abbey? This is Detective Kate Beckett. Do you think you could come to the precinct? It's about Laura."

* * *

_Present –1:00am_

"What do you mean by 'Rose', Doctor?" Jack looked back at the direction the Time Lord was still staring at, but saw nothing.

"Who's Rose?" Castle slurred some, looking at the other two men in curiosity and concern. He looked back and forth between the Doctor and the spot he was still staring at.

"A friend of ours from nearly a lifetime ago. She," Jack paused a moment, his own blue eyes glistened at the memory of that woman's sweet smile, "She was a fantastic woman."

The Time Lord stood there several minutes, his gaze completely fixed. His body was tense and unmovable. He heard the two talking, but he was unable to move or reply. Or did he not want to react in fear of disturbing the sensory vision he held at this moment?

His emotions decided to take over him, tying his reason and logic to a chair, gagging both. He could hear her voice calling his name. He could even smell the soft flowery perfume she loved to wear mixed with the metallic scent of her make-up.

It wasn't until Castle's phone went off with a loud chime that the Doctor was able to break free from the psychic lull. The Time Lord shook his head, blinking a few times, before focusing on the novelist. Castle looked to his phone and watched the Doctor as he answered it.

What exactly happened, the Doctor didn't know, but it had to be something very powerful to push through his own shields like that. The thought made him frown. He didn't even feel anything push through. There was nothing that could have come through to alter his mind like it just had. Not without him knowing about it. Except...

"Doctor?" Having sobered up considerably from the news he had just received, Castle's voice knocked the suited man from his reverie. Rick handed his phone to the Time Lord, "It's Kate. She wants to talk to you."

The Doctor took the phone and held it to his ear, noting the frown Castle held, "From the look on your fiancé's face, I can only gather that this is something bad."

"There's been another murder. Gunshot to the head," Kate's voice had a forced steadiness, holding on, when she desperately wanted to let go of all emotion she held at the moment. She was a homicide detective, but it didn't stop her from feeling the effects of losing someone she personally knew for the third time.

"Detective, as much as I can tell, this one is important to you. It's hardly related to my own investigation. You have also made perfectly clear you want none of my help," He was irritated at her, but more so at the pressing matter of someone tampering with his mind.

"I have no doubt they're related, Doctor."

"How?"

"You."

The Doctor raised his brow, letting the detective continue, "The victim was one of our techs. She was looking into the device found on the base of one of our victims' neck. I believe she was shot because she found something. Something she was about to show me."

"All right, but I still don't see how that involves me. Nor do I see how any of this would make you want to speak with a crackpot old fool like myself. You're not telling me something. And you are doing so very loudly. So talk to me, Detective Beckett. What are you not telling me?"

"On her body, I found a note that says, 'to the Doctor.' It was attached to a red rose."

The Doctor's face paled as he looked to Jack with wide eyes. The captain was silent as he watched the Doctor carefully and with concern. The Time Lord turned his back to the other two men, taking a few steps forward, as he let his reasoning and instinct claw at each other for control. He ran an agitated hand through his spiked hair.

"Doctor? Are you still there?" Kate inquired after the long silence.

"A rose you said?" It took all the calm the Doctor could muster to keep his voice steady. Pain ran through him at the reminder of the woman who had wrapped her heart around his two. Shock and curiosity raced across his mind as to who would want his attention like that. And there was rage. Rage at the audacity the killer had for tainting such a wonderful woman's name with a senseless death. He turned back to Jack and watched his face turn white.

"Yes. Is the type of flower significant?" The Doctor could hear her frown over the phone, "Doctor, do you know who is responsible?"

He thought about it long and hard. The other deaths were made over distance. They were cold and impersonal. This new one was close. It held a message. A message for him. They knew him. They had to have known him if they predicted the impact their message would have on him. They selected a rose specifically. They wanted him to know they had knowledge of him. Not just him personally, but his thoughts and desires... his hopes and fears… his hearts.

"Doctor? Answer me!" Kate hissed. "Do you know who's responsible?!"

"Kate. Where are you?"

"I'm at the precinct. But-"

"Good. Stay there! What ever you do, you just stay there!"

"Are you going t-" Kate was cut of as the Doctor hung up the phone and handed it back to Castle.

"Jack, take Rick to the TARDIS. It's just down a couple of blocks that way in an alley. He'll be safer there. I trust you still have a key?"

"Doctor, what happened?" Jack moved closer to his friend and reached out to grab his shoulder.

"Jack, don't argue with me! Just do it!" The Doctor snapped at the captain, pulling back before Jack could touch him, rummaging through his pockets.

"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Castle objected. "What's going on? Is Kate all right? Is she in danger?"

"Kate is fine," the Time Lord replied absent-mindedly as he continued to search his pockets. "Everything is fine. Just go with Jack to the TARDIS. Everything will be all right."

"Bullshit!" Castle shouted back.

The Doctor stopped abruptly, only to be glared down by the novelist, "You're scared. You just said I'll be safe in this TARDIS thing. Something is happening. If the love of my life is in danger, the only place I am going is to be by her side!"

Whatever remained of the writer's inebriated state vanished, as he continued to glower at the Time Lord. He wasn't going to let anything keep him from Kate when disaster struck. He didn't let a bomb stop him. He certainly wasn't going to let some skinny, odd man stop him.

Castle held the Doctor's gaze as the taller man studied him. "Fine," the Doctor growled. "Allons-y!"

**Hope you all enjoyed it! And please! Review! I love me some reviews! xD**


	9. The Secret Storm

**Alright! Things are finally coming together as I figure out what to do next. This chapter took a bit to get started on. I didn't know how exactly to go about the beginning of the scene. But I did like the idea of some interaction between him and Perlmutter, just because he's Perlmutter. No explanation needed. xD**

**Anyhoo, by the end of this chapter, you should be picking up on some of the clues I have laid about. Also there are several more introductions I need to make before things get really going, like Lanie, Ryan and Espo meeting the good Doctor, as well as some Martha and Alexis.**

**Also about the Doctor's pockets. It has always been assumed in some cases that his pockets are designed with Time Lord technology. Also the law of averages suggest at some point the Doctor may grab the wrong item. I mean how does even get his sonic screw driver out so quickly without having to fish through the crap in his pockets. I know possible because Ten uses it more frequently than his previous regenerations I mean Two had to search through his pockets sometimes to find the right item, xD**

**Alas I'm rambling, however I need your help on something. ****This is mainly for those who have watched the Classics. I say this because I need some suggestions for items in the Doctor's pockets for a future scene. Mostly I need items to represent his previous incarnations. For example, the torn shoe worn by Susan that the Doctor had pocketed in promise of fixing it for her before leaving her behind to allow her to grow her own roots. another is the Second Doctor's recorder. I also have some of the obvious ideas as jelly babies, a banana, and some others. Be creative if you want.**

**Evenmoor: Exactly! I had planned the Doctor on actually commenting on that because he has done so in the past. And also this person is VERY successful. Now, the question is, are the hallucinations connected with the murders, or just a coincidence? xD There is some food for thought. xD**

**superlc529: O.o hmm, I don't remember making a complete connection between Abbey and Rose save they are both blonde. Though Abbey's hair is platinum blonde. When I revisit my previous chapters, I will have to make of the distinction there because I know Abbey's doesn't really remind the Doctor of Rose. He didn't really look at Abbey strangely for that. It's more of he senses that there is something different about Abbey, in which you see int he chapter a glimpse of that that is. (I don't think I mentioned this in my reply to you before, but it just caught my eye in looking over the reviews again.)**

**FORD B & Eri Hunters: Thank you! xD**

**Missa: Thanks, girlfriend. Thought I don't know what other writing you are talking about ;D**

**I also can't remember is I mentioned it, but I want to give out a special thanks to superlc529. She has betaed this chapter and the previous on and has been tremendous in support. She has taken battle against my typo-daemons and resurrected many English teachers who had died due to my lack of ability to proofread my own work. xD **

**And lastly, but definitely not least...REVIEWS! Please please please PLEASE! Leave a review. Anything! Oh and the longer the better! xD Tell my your thoughts, where do you think the story is going? the reviews help keep me stay focused on the story and makes me want to write more. Keeps me from becoming discouraged, which is surprisingly easy for me. ^^;**

_**Doctor Who **_**Quote**_**  
**__**The Doctor**_**: **_**[The Doctor looks in a mirror] **_**Hello, handsome.  
**_**Calvierri Girls**_**: Who are you?  
**_**The Doctor**_**: **_**[Looks at the mirror and then at the girls, realising that they cast no reflection] **_**How are you doing that? I am loving it! You're like Houdini, only five slightly scary girls. And he was shorter... will be shorter. I'm rambling.  
**_**Calvierri Girls (all)**_**: I'll ask you again, signore: who are you?  
**_**The Doctor**_**: Why don't you check this out? **_**[Shows them a card with a picture of the First Doctor; long pause as the girls look confused; he looks at the card and remembers that he has left the psychic paper with Rory]**_** Library card, of course! It's with... he's [gestures in front of his face to imitate Rory's long nose]... I need a spare.****  
**

_**Castle**_** quote  
**_**[Castle enters the room, dressed as Mal from Firefly]  
**_**Alexis: Hey.  
**_**Castle**_**: Hey... I was just trying on my Halloween costume.  
**_**Alexis**_**: What exactly are you supposed to be?  
**_**Castle**_**: Space cowboy.  
**_**Alexis**_**: Okay. A: there are no cows in space. B: didn't you wear that, like, five years ago?  
**_**Castle**_**: So?  
**_**Alexis**_**: So, don't you think you should move on?  
**_**Castle**_**: I like it.****  
**

_Someone told me love would all save us  
__But, how can that be, look what love gave us  
__A world full of killing and blood spilling  
__That world never came__  
_

_And they say that a hero could save us  
__I'm not gonna stand here and wait  
__I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles  
__Watch as we all fly away - "Hero" by Nickleback__  
_

Chapter 09 - The Secret Storm

The Doctor leaned over carefully examining the lifeless remains of Laura Powell. Something was off about her and he saw many indications as to what that could be as he looked her over. The Time Lord pushed up the black frames of his brainy specs as the gears turned in his highly intelligent mind. He filed every clue and every detail mentally before he reached down to turn over her hand. That was when he saw it. The clue he needed.

"What do you think you're doing?! You're not authorized to be here," Perlmutter stopped in his tracks after he opened the door, spotting a strange man in a brown coat in the morgue. _His_ morgue.

Without looking away from the victim's hand, the Doctor reached in his inner coat pocket, pulled out and held up his trusty billfold – his psychic paper, "Doctor John Smith, medical consultant on loan from Scotland Yard."

"That's a library card with the name 'The Doctor' and a picture of an old man that looks nothing like you," the medical examiner replied with great annoyance.

The Time Lord faced Perlmutter, turning the billfold around, "So it is. Must've grabbed the wrong one," He started to pat all his pockets, in search for the psychic paper when the doors opened again.

"It's all right, Perlmutter. The Doctor is with me," Kate walked in, followed by Castle and Jack. "You know you don't have to keep lying about who you are," Kate added to the Time Lord.

"Mm," the mad man cocked his head to the side in consideration then slipped off his glasses and tucked it and his library card back into his pocket, "Habit."

When the three men had returned to the precinct, the Doctor went on ahead to the morgue, leaving Jack to keep an eye on Castle as the writer searched for Kate. The captain believed his alien friend was being a bit paranoid, but humored him nonetheless. He knew exactly what the spiky-haired brunette was going through.

"Then Mister Browncoat wannabe should have said something," Perlmutter muttered.

"Perlmutter!" Castle exclaimed in shock. "I had no idea!" Who knew?

Castle turned his attention to the body on the table as the medical examiner gave the writer a glare, "You never asked."

"So," Kate crossed her arms, looking at the Doctor, "What do you think?"

"I think you look tired," The Doctor turned back to the body of the victim and leaned over her once again. He reached down to open one of her eyes to examine the stormy iris, "Jack, would you mind going with Detective Kate Beckett and Mister Richard Castle? Keep an eye on them."

"We don't need a babysitter. And you were the one who told me to stay put. Now spill… What have you found?" Kate replied before Jack could say anything.

The Doctor was still looking over the body with an impassive expression as he straightened up again, "How long has she been working here?"

"About six months… maybe seven or eight? Why?"

"And the first murder?"

"About," Kate paused as her brows furrowed. Then her eyes widened as she realized where he was going, "About six months ago. Laura couldn't possibly have been involved in all of this. She called me this evening saying she had something to show me about the devices we found on the other victims' necks. She said I needed to see it personally."

The Doctor grimaced, "'What's the worst that could happen?' 'Well, there's no turning back now!' 'It's better you come see this for yourself.' – Don't you humans ever learn from your own fictions?"

He sighed, running his long fingers through his ridiculously disheveled hair, making it stick up even more. The sight looked almost comical, making him appear even more like some cartoon mad scientist. However, the effect was quickly nullified by the grim look on his face. The Doctor's angular jaw was stiff, jutting out, as his lips pursed thinly across his face, "Where did you find her?"

"In her lab."

"You have security cameras?"

Kate shifted uncomfortably, coughed, looking away from the Doctor before shifting her gaze back to him, "The footage is missing, as well as the device we had and all her equipment. Her lab was wiped clean. It was a professional job. But you still didn't answer my question."

"He does that a lot," Jack commented.

"I got that," Kate replied, still looking at the Doctor expectantly.

"I asked because either Laura might still be alive _or_ she was a plant the moment you hired her."

"All right, Sherlock. What makes you say that?"

"Is it not obvious?" He looked at Kate, as if expecting her to know the answer right of the bat. When she gave him a confused glare in return, the Doctor continued, "She's a clone."

Kate glanced back at Castle, anticipating some reaction from him on the Doctor's science fictional theory. A gleeful holler or stifled fanboy yelp. She frowned at the sight of her fiancé just staring at Laura lying on the cold slab. She knew the man was thinking of Alexis. The young technician was just around the same age as the younger Castle, who was actually attending school for behavioral criminology and forensics.

Beckett looked back to the Doctor, "Seriously? A clone?"

"Yup!" The Doctor replied, popping the 'p' at the end.

"Are you seriously trying to say that this body is not the dead body of Laura Powell, but a _clone_ of Laura Powell?" Perlmutter interjected with a brow raised in suspicion, his tone incredulous, "And here I thought Castle was the one who came up with the insane theories."

"Oh, I assure you Mister, uh..."

"_Doctor_… Perlmutter."

"Ah, yes, Doctor Perlmutter. I assure you it is not a theory. It is a fact," He held his arm out to Kate and Perlmutter, and then motioned them to come closer to him, "Look at the hair on the left temple. There is a slight thinning of the follicles," the Doctor continued. The detective carefully stepped up closer and looked down at the body to examine where he was pointing, while the ME pulled out his chart and inconspicuously took notes.

"Also the irises are not as retracted as they should be… but the biggest clue that tells us this body was lab-grown is the fingers," The Doctor turned them over to show her, letting Beckett lean down closer to get a better look.

"No fingerprints," She straightened back up, "But we have those in her file."

"Which means either someone tampered with your records…"

"Or Laura might still be alive!" Castle finally spoke, brightening more at that possibility.

"You want to put an APB out on a dead woman that we already have in our morgue?" Captain Gates barely had time to sit at her desk after coming in to start her day, before she was bombarded by four people.

It wasn't enough to have been swarmed by them before her morning coffee, but she nearly kicked the strange man in the blue military coat out of her precinct. She'd have none of the man's unprofessional manner. However, the Doctor insisted Captain Harkness was his partner before he chided the 'poster boy' for his flirtatious manner.

* * *

Gates looked over her reading glasses and up at the female detective, who was standing on the other side of her desk. Sitting on the couch behind Beckett was Castle and the 'poster boy' named Captain Jack Harkness was leaning on the arm of the furniture. Then there was the Doctor.

She noted how he looked much like an outsider, standing against the doorframe of the police captain's office with his hands stuffed in his trouser pockets. He kept his gaze past everyone in the room, at the window across her office. The way he held himself, the police captain could almost assume it was intentional. Was he purposely separating himself from the other three?

"Sir, we believe that there's a possibility that Laura could have been kidnapped and replaced by a," Kate, giving a quick glance back at the Doctor, paused for a moment to choose her next word with care, "_double_ in order to throw us off. Possibly to make us believe she was dead. We," she glanced to the Doctor again, "believe Laura could have been involved with the strange murders."

"A double?" Captain Gates pulled off her reading glasses and held them folded in her hand.

"That," The Doctor finally moved, shrugging away from the doorframe from his isolated spot and walked over to the desk to stand next to Kate, "or as a message."

He looked to the detective, "You said there was a note addressed to me, attached to a rose. Whoever left that note was sending a message to me. They wanted me to investigate what happened. They know me… not just my brilliance, but personally."

There was a soft crack in his voice at the mention of the message that was left for him and Kate recognized the look in the man's eyes. It was the same look he held when he first refused to work with her on this case. She knew exactly what the situation meant and the detective immediately put herself in his shoes. That talent of hers gave her insight to the mad man she agreed to work with and she suddenly felt a surge of admiration for his resolve.

This bastard behind the murders was trying to break down the good Doctor by hitting him in the heart. Kate mentally smiled. She could see the fire in the Time Lord's eyes. That message only made him more determined and focused.

"If they know you personally, then I'm sure you have an idea of who is behind all of this, Doctor," Gates questioned, pointing the glasses at him before letting them hang from the chain around her neck.

"Oh, Captain Gates," The Doctor gave her an acid smile, "There are plenty who know me, but very few know me well enough to leave a rose and have the understanding of its meaning to me. All of which couldn't possibly be involved."

"You mean the Master?" Jack finally spoke, a hint of some dark emotion creeping into his tone.

"The Master is dead. We all know that," The skinny man's tone was flat and dead.

"Who's this Master?" Kate inquired.

"You all knew him as the previous Prime Minister Harold Saxon," Jack answered. Kate could see a hint of grim darkness behind those blue eyes.

"You mean the psychopath that killed our president and was behind that Toclafane hoax?" Castle's brow furrowed at the memory, "And people say _we're_ stupid in our choice of leaders these past few elections."

"Intellect had nothing to do with it. But yes, Jack. I was talking about the Master… among others."

"Who?" The Time Lord's friend stood up and walked to him, sensing the wall the man tended to build up whenever visited with something painful start to build.

The captain desperately wanted to take the other into an embrace. It could have been the effect of all that had happened in the past couple of years that made him increasingly protective over those he cared deeply for. It also could be due to how strangely the Doctor had been lately. The man had seemed increasingly weary and broken since Jack had seen him last after saving the Earth yet again from the Daleks.

The Doctor's eyes grew stoic, hiding the sense of dread that has hung over him since his sixth incarnation, "Someone I would rather forget," was all he said.

Captain Gates rubbed the bridge of her nose, "So, what? You're saying that whoever killed or kidnapped Laura Powell is doing this as some kind of revenge? And that you're not sure as to who exactly is behind all this, but it's possible that it's someone you'd 'rather forget'?"

"No! Don't you ever listen?!" The Doctor snapped at the police captain, who gave him an icy glare in return. He immediately apologized for his blunt outburst, "I'm sorry… As I said, the only beings that could possibly have the knowledge of Rose and what she meant to me are gone."

"Gone as in dead?"

"Yes and no. Some dead, yes. Others... Look, let's just concentrate on finding out if Laura was in fact planted or replaced. I'm," the Doctor gestured his hands out the door, "going to go see if I can't build something that might help us find where the signal that's transmitting to the psychic receivers is coming from."

And with that, he stormed out before Gates could stand all the way up and reprimand him for raising his voice at her in her office.

"Doctor!" Jack growled, as he followed after the Time Lord. Something was off about his friend and the ex-con artist was determined to figure it out.

"All right, I'll have an APB put out, just," Gates looked to the tired faces of her best detective and her unconventional partner, "both of you get some sleep. And keep an eye on that Doctor fellow. He may have influence way above any of us in this room, but I will not have his emotions jeopardize and compromise this case."

"Understood, sir… and thank you," Kate replied before her boss waved her and Castle out.

* * *

He lied.

Not about needing to construct a device to locate the psychic receivers' location. That would take some time and he would need to gain yet another receiver to boost the signal, now that the one Laura had been testing is missing and the other was damaged when he saved the comatose man. He only had the two he collected from the first two murders and needed three to triangulate the signal.

No. He had lied to Jack, telling him he had to locate something back in his TARDIS. Something he honestly had not built yet, just to have a quiet moment to think. Of course Jack would have stayed silent around the Doctor, but the captain was becoming somewhat of a distraction for the alien. With all these emotions and even memories starting to boil up to the surface that he hadn't dealt with for years, the Doctor could not afford any aberrations.

He needed to be focused. He was becoming too easily distracted as of late and he knew the culprit. Ever since he had saved that man at the hospital, he felt as if someone had been stomping around in his mind, disturbing his memories and emotions like silt and dirt kicked up in a small pond that was once calm.

With his hands shoved deeply into his pockets, the Doctor paid little attention to where his feet were taking him, as he walked back through the doors into the morgue and into the section where the other victims of Death's touch were stored. The air was chilled and made the Doctor shiver at one of his most unpleasant memories: waking up in one of those compartments.

He wasn't alone in the room, however. A young pale woman stood over the rolled out body of Death's latest collection: Laura Powell. The Doctor recognized her from _The Old Haunt_. She reached over to stroke the brunette's crystallized hair. He couldn't see Abbey's face, but he could hear the soft distinct hiccups with each violent tremble of her body.

"Oh! Sorry," the Doctor immediately froze for a moment, before he started turning back to exit the room.

"No," Abbey turned around, wiping her tear-track riddled face. "You can stay. I was just about to leave." Her eyes were red and puffy as she gazed at the Time Lord, only to look down for a moment, as she pulled out a small package of tissues. It was then she realized it was empty.

The Doctor immediately walked right up to Abbey and pulled out his handkerchief, handing it to her. As he did, he could feel heaviness in both his hearts – a heaviness that seemed to increase with each passing moment. It was like the air around him had suddenly became dense and the feeling of breathlessness was starting to nearly overwhelm him. He shook off the feeling.

"I'm so sorry," He studied her for a moment as she took the handkerchief from his hand and used it to wipe more of her cascading tears, "You must have loved her very much?"

She nodded, "The Doctor, right?"

It was his turn to nod.

"Did you know Laura?"

"No, I'm sorry to say I didn't," The Doctor's brow furrowed in genuine care, "I was told she was a brilliant young woman."

The Doctor walked over to Lauren's body, studying it with different eyes this time, trying to ascertain what the forensics tech was like.

"She was," Abbey took a big breath in and cleared her throat before handing back the Doctor's handkerchief. "How do you deal with it?"

"With what?" The Doctor looked back at the young bartender before taking his handkerchief back and pocketing it.

"Losing someone you love."

The Doctor stiffened for a millisecond at her response before forcing himself to relax. Was she assuming? Or was this young woman so much more sensitive than the average human?

"Well, in my experience, I don't," He looks away sheepishly and sadly. "Honestly, I take the coward's approach. I run away." The Doctor frowned. Why did he just blurt all that out to a complete stranger? "But what I mean to say is that it just takes time. One day you'll find that it doesn't hurt as much."

He looked back at the girl, to find her studying him, "What?"

"Nothing… People think I'm crazy when I try to explain," Abbey flushed a bit.

"I'm not people." The Doctor looked right into Abbey's eyes with sincere resolve, before adding, "Try me."

"I," She paused for a moment, looking unsure, "I gathered that. I can sense things no one else can: energies and emotions. Usually they're just really subtle. They're nothing completely noticeable. But you're different. It's like everyone else around you are each just a small flame of a candle. But you, you are like a raging volcano… burning everything you touch. Touching lives and changing them. Destroying, and yet bringing life to everything. There's a storm inside of you… an oncoming storm."

As she spoke, the Doctor's face paled at her veracity. Even a psychic human wouldn't have been this accurate without alien help. He opened his mouth to inquire exactly how she knew about 'the oncoming storm,' but the doors to the morgue swung open with a creak and Kate walked right in, "There you are… There's been another one."

**xD Haha! Again! Please let me know what you all think? Speculations? **

**Who is the Abbey girl really? Is there something alien enhancing her psychic abilities? Or is she not even human at all?**

**Who is behind the murders and could they really know the Doctor personally or are they getting the information from another source?**


	10. A Mere Mortal

**Okay! Got the next chapter! Yay!**

**Crystallea: I know! I know! It's a Nemisis Plot! (sorry CoH joke). But really, my chapter are designed to make you want to read more. Keep you hooked. ;P And no, I'm not bringing in Romana. I'm still watching the Classics and haven't gotten to her yet, so I don't think I could pull off her character yet. As for Martha, I think I may have confused you. Martha will not be in my fic, however there is Martha Rodgers, Castle's mother. That was the MArtha I was referring to. xD And I'm glad you love my story. Sadly, the cliffhangers are to stay. xD**

**Missa: xD I know. I missed doing that. But being cut off from RPers did make me write this story, so plus side on that!**

**StoneStorm: That is a neat idea for a fic, thought not something I might write. xD I'm actually have another idea for a kind of sequel to this fic involving a different regeneration of the Doctor, Nine or Eleven (Maybe Twelve depending on when it gets written) taking place later in Castle and Kate's timeline. Dunno, I also have an idea for a NUMB3RS/DW xover. xD**

**superlc: I think you mean in Planet of the Dead. xD There were no psychics in Waters of Mars. ;P There is on thing I will say about Abbey: Spoilers! xD**

**_Doctor Who_**** Quote  
****_Sarah Jane_****: You're being childish!  
****_The Doctor_****: Well, of course I'm being childish! There's no point being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes. - ****_Robot_**

**_Castle_**** Quote  
****_Castle_****: Do you know what Lanie and Esposito were fighting about?  
**_**K**_**_ate_****: Everything. They both want to be together but neither of them wants to admit to it.  
****_Castle_****: Ugh, why do people do that to themselves?  
****_Kate_****: Maybe they just don't see it.  
****_Castle_****: How could they not? It's so obvious. - ****_Cuffed_**

_I've paid my dues_  
_Time after time._  
_I've done my sentence_  
_But committed no crime._  
_And bad mistakes ‒_  
_I've made a few._  
_I've had my share of sand kicked in my face_  
_But I've come through._

_(And I need just go on and on, and on, and on)_

_We are the champions, my friends,_  
_And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end._  
_We are the champions._  
_We are the champions._  
_No time for losers_  
_'Cause we are the champions of the world. - "We Are the Champions" by Queen_

Chapter 10: No Mere Mortal

Kate pulled up to the sea of white and blue cars just outside the crime scene: a prestigious gym. The pink hue casting down from the day's dawn contrasted with the primary-colored lights of the police-marked vehicles. Kate pushed open the driver side door and stepped out, followed by the Doctor from the front passenger side. Castle stepped out from behind her and Jack from the Time Lord. As they walked from the car to the entrance of the building that held the gym, the quartet was greeted by Ryan and Esposito, who both seemed quite anxious to meet this Doctor character.

"Ryan, Espo… this is the Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness," Castle introduced the men before Kate could get a word in edgewise, "Doctor and Jack, meet Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito."

"So this is the famous Doctor that the entire precinct has been up in a roar about," Ryan grinned excitedly, holding out his hand. The Doctor shook it. However, Esposito only raised a brow, trying not to look as interested as he actually was.

"A doctor of what, exactly?" the larger detective questioned, his arms crossed.

The Doctor ignored the question. He gave them a curt nod and pulled out his glasses, walking right past them into the building, leaving Jack to smile apologetically.

"A doctor of practically everything," the captain explained then turned to Detective Beckett.

"I'll make sure he gets a pair of gloves," She gave him a grateful nod before Jack scooted past Ryan and Esposito, "Oh, and nice to meet you both," he called back to the two and then continued to run off to catch up with the Doctor.

"Is this guy for real?" Esposito pointed his thumb back to the skinny man, who was reluctantly putting on the blue gloves Jack handed him. The two continued down the hallway as the Doctor flashed what he called his "psychic paper" to anyone who stopped them.

"Apparently so," Kate started to follow as she and the other two detectives discussed the details of the crime, Castle on their heels. She and her partner had already grabbed a pair of gloves themselves, going into their usual routine.

The four of them had to walk past the crowd of curious bystanders that had formed. These people were all attempting to look through the large window on the second floor of the main part of the gym to see if they could get a glimpse of what was happening.

Yet, Beckett ignored them. Instead, she lead her team into the building pushing through the crowded hallway of her fellow colleagues and into the elevator. Ryan pressed the fourth floor button.

"So what do you have for me?" Kate watched the dial above the steel doors move to the right as they started their ascent.

"The victim's name is Ashton Bradley," Ryan explained, "Same MO as the previous deaths. Lanie's preliminary says unexplained stroke, which is confirmed by witnesses. Bradley's trainer said that he had to stop the session short because our vic was starting to feel faint and overheated. The guy assumed heat-exhaustion, but then our vic just collapsed and started convulsing."

"And Lanie found the same metal device on the base of our victim's neck," Esposito continued as the elevator slowed down and the doors opened after a ding.

"So the first two murders and the one attempted had the victims found in the privacy of their own homes. These last two were in public," Kate commented, the first one to step out.

"Which means our psychopath is escalating," Esposito followed her through another busy corridor filled with cops and techs.

Kate frowned. She hadn't included Laura's murder/kidnapping as part of the same murder investigation as these mysterious ones. However, her gut instinct told her they were connected through the Doctor. And something that man said about Laura's case and about how she was a message to him – only the Doctor could have known these absurd findings. They were findings that she was now having difficulty remaining skeptical about.

There was also what Ryan had dug up – this Third Eye Company.

"Not necessarily. Ryan, you said that the other victims each had a connection with Third Eye?"

Ryan nodded, "Yeah, but the company is only a year old and clean. BBB-certified and everything."

"Third Eye? You mean that new agency health organization that promotes alternative medicine?" Castle inquired. "They are involved?" He sounded a little too excited, "I knew that place sound fishy!"

"Wait, you've heard of them?" Kate frowned.

"Yeah, my mother got a brochure from a seminar they hosted a few months back. Should I be worried?"

"Don't think so," Kate made a mental note to herself to get a hold of that brochure and turned back to Ryan, "Check with the friends and family. See if Bradley also had any involvement with this company or any seminars they hosted in this past year, including the past victims. And keep looking into that company. Financials, anything we can get our hands on."

"Got it," Ryan made a note and walked back to the elevator.

Kate stepped into the room and took in the scene. Lights flashed in random intervals as forensics captured every detail they could find. She heard the soft murmur of witnesses giving their testimonies to other detectives and cops. But across the room was her destination.

Ashton Bradley's body lied there on a mat in front of a mirrored wall. It was surrounded by three figures, each she recognized clearly. Kneeling down on one side, writing on a clipboard in her hand, was Doctor Lanie Parish. Across from her, the Doctor began to kneel down to the body, examining it, as Captain Harkness stood behind him.

Watching that strange skinny man for a moment, Kate started to get the feeling there was more about him than he let on. That his crazy theories about psychic energy and clones were not as much as science fiction as she thought they could be, and that the Doctor had firsthand experience in this unbelievably real fantasy.

Lanie looked up at the Doctor from her clipboard.

"Excuse me? Who are you and what are you doing?"

"We're with Detective Beckett," Jack explained as he walked around to greet Lanie with his hand extended out to her. She stood up to take it. "Captain Jack Harkness," He gave her his signature charming wink and smile.

"Jaaaack!" The Doctor chided without looking up from the body, "What have I said about a time and a place?"

The captain responded back to the Time Lord with a smile and a roll of his eyes, "The cranky one is the Doctor."

"Oh," Lanie smirked playfully back to the captain, "It's a pleasure to meet you both." Her tone suggested that she was more pleased to meet the captain.

It was the Doctor's turn to roll his eyes before turning over the body, studying the plate on the back of the victim's neck. He then pulled his sonic screwdriver out from his pocket and pointed it at the device. After a few seconds of blue light and a whirring sound emitting from the screwdriver, the metal device on the back of the victim's neck unlatched and fell into the Doctor's palm. He held it up to his eyes for a few seconds before sniffing the bloodied end that was attached. Then he brought the attachment to his lips and tapped it to his tongue, tasting it and gaining a look of disgust from the coroner.

"That is not sanitary," Lanie commented, making a face.

"He was under the same drugs."

"How did you-excuse me!" She reached out and took the device from the Doctor's hand as he tried to pocket it, "I'm not going to let you steal evidence from right under my nose, mister!"

"Doctor," he corrected as he reached out and took the device back. "Besides, I need this more than you."

"It belongs," she snatched it back, "with us for analysis."

The Doctor growled and grabbed the device again, "Fat good you lot did on keeping the last one."

"Doctor," Jack crossed his arms at the man.

"I'm sorry," The Time Lord frowned and cleared his throat, "That was rude. However, I do need this to help locate where the signal is coming from." He waved the device to and fro and then pocketed it before the annoying ME could take it away from him. Again.

The sound of someone clearing their throat from behind the Doctor dissipated the childish air, as the three of them looked back at Javier. He had seen the interaction between Lanie and "Captain America." He was not impressed. Glaring down at the captain, the ex-military detective knew he would have to keep his eye on this one. Lanie just gave the large detective a pointed glare, in which the two began to have one of their silent staring fights.

"Hey, Esposito, why don't you go help Ryan with Third Eye?" Kate called out to him, seeing the tension that was starting to form between Javier and Lanie.

"But-" the large detective protested, but shut his mouth tightly at the look on Kate's face and glanced back at the captain. He gave the man one of those 'I'm watching you' stares before turning back and locating his partner. But as he passed Kate, she stopped him for a moment.

"Also, see what you can dig up on this Doctor guy and his friend. Something doesn't add up and I want to know what," Kate whispered to him.

"No problem," Javier smirked and nodded before walking away from Kate. He had no problem looking for any dirt on this Captain Jack Harkness.

"What do you got?" Kate moved to stand next to the Doctor, her hand on her hips, while Castle walked around and knelt to the body.

"He was given the same medication as the others. Had the same device," He pulled it out from his pocket and tossed it up in the air. After catching it, he studied it for another moment before pocketing it again.

"I still want to know exactly how you knew that from tasting the guy's blood," Lanie crossed her arms expectantly.

"What?" Kate gave the Doctor a look of shock and disbelief.

"You tasted his blood?!" Castle made a strange sound with a face, "Dude, is that actually sanitary?" he asked Lanie.

The Doctor gave a pouted frown at the looks he was gaining from those around him. He pushed himself back up and straightened his tie, "That's not important."

"Nuh-uh! You don't get to act all weird and then brush me off like that!" Lanie pointed a finger at him, "You are going to explain to me how exactly you think you are some human ELISA?"

The Doctor nearly smiled at the annoying woman's sass. It gave him the bittersweet memory of a certain ginger. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he replied and received a glare from the ME for his condescending tone, but he ignored it and continued, "Now, what's really important is now I can find out where the signal that is killing these people is coming from."

"Are you saying you now have a way to track those responsible with that?" Kate gestured to the Doctor's coat pocket.

"Well, yeah," He gave her a 'duh' look. "But," his brows shot up as he accentuated the word and pointed his index finger up, "first I need to build a better psychic pulse tracker." He shoved his hands in his pockets before backing away a couple of steps.

"Where are you going?"

"Going back to the TAR- I mean my," the Doctor paused a moment, scratching behind his ear, "uh, lab." Kate raised her brow at the lie.

"Are you not even tired?" Castle finally stood up. Exhaustion was creeping up on him and he knew it had to be as well for the other two men, "Either of you?" He looked back and forth between Jack and the Doctor.

The Doctor stiffened at the writer's observation and glanced to his friend. He could see the captain was showing no effects of the lack of sleep from the night before and it made him wonder if being a fixed point changed the man's physiology. The Time Lord himself had no need for the same amount of sleep that humans needed, not that sleep came easily for him anyway. However, was it the same for Jack, who is, for all intents and purposes, still human?

"I'm fine! We both are!" the Doctor finally replied, Jack nodding in agreement, "Better than fine. Sleep is for mere mortals! Now, off to see about constructing a psychic energy transceiver." He started to leave, but stopped at Kate's inquiry, turning back.

"Fine… How long will that take you?"

"Just about... oh, a couple of hours? How about this, you lot, do whatever it is you do," the Doctor pointed at the body, "and I'll go do what it is I do," he pointed his thumb behind himself, "and we'll all meet up sometime later at someplace, okay? Good!" He starts to leave again.

"What time?"

Again the Doctor stopped and turned back around. His face was showing clear signs of annoyance.

"My dear, time is-" the Doctor swallowed his words after hearing Jack clear his throat, "Ah, right. What time is it?"

Kate looked at her watch, "Six forty-two. How about we meet at the Old Haunt at about four this evening? Gives you time to 'do what it is you do' and gives us 'mere mortals' time for rest from being up nearly twenty-four hours straight." She looked at the Doctor pointedly.

"Good idea. Allons-y!" He turned around, for the last time, and walked away, completely oblivious to the detective's tone about being "mere mortals" compared to the Doctor. She watched him leave with a shocked and affronted glare.

Jack moved up beside Kate, "This time I'm gonna keep an eye on him."

"Good idea. I barely know him, but I recognize it when someone is about to crack under pressure," Kate's face softened as she glanced briefly to the captain.

"Trust me when I tell you that is no possible feat. Some people make mistakes when emotional. Not the Doctor. He becomes focused. Dangerous even. Not for you or me… but for those who stand in his way."

"Something's different though, isn't it?" Kate turned her head to face the captain.

"You sense it, too?" Jack had met her gaze, in which the two held for a moment. In that moment, the two shared an understanding. They both cared for an erratically childish and brooding genius who had a pension for getting into trouble. After that moment passed, the captain nodded and followed the Doctor out of the gym, back into the streets of New York.

Sense what exactly, Kate didn't know. But her instincts were telling her two things: the Doctor may be dangerous, but he genuinely wished to help. He wanted to stop these murders. Stop the bastards from killing innocent people. She knew he would do whatever it took. It was like he needed to stop whatever suffering he had come upon. Like a man repenting for past sins.

However there was a nagging feeling. Something in the pit of her gut. Something kept telling her the Doctor was more involved than they realized. More than even the mad man may have realized.

***ELISA stands for enzyme-linked- immunosorbent assay. It's a popular format of a "wet-lab" type analytical biochemistry assay used to detect the presence of a substance. Not sure if that is what would be used for actual analysis on what drugs were in the victim's system, but this is one of the things I found that seemed to fit the most.**

**What ****_is_**** going on with the Doctor? It's all just from the events in Waters of Mars, or is something else?**

Also reviews! Leave one please! Tell me your theories! And remember, need some ideas for things that would randomly be in the Doctors pockets, specifically anything to relate to his past regenerations! Thank you all for reading! I'm off to work on the next chapter for more Martha Rodgers and Alexis! Allons-y!


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